Health.Care – AFSCME Privatization Updatehttp://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate
Information on the latest activities, problems, and issues in the contracting out of public servicesWed, 16 Aug 2017 23:19:10 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.7.5124494553More funding, accountability for VA Choice program proposed, now what?http://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/2017/08/why-privatizing-the-va-wont-do-much-to-help-veterans.htm
Wed, 16 Aug 2017 23:19:10 +0000http://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/?p=40262Source: Steff Thomas, Federal News Radio, August 7, 2017 Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin received his wish last week as the House passed a bill that will add an additional $2.1 billion for the Veterans Choice Program. The bill, also known as the Choice Act, was introduced just weeks before the current Choice program funding […]

Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin received his wish last week as the House passed a bill that will add an additional $2.1 billion for the Veterans Choice Program. The bill, also known as the Choice Act, was introduced just weeks before the current Choice program funding was set to expire, and passed as a last-minute decision before Congress left for the August recess. One question that still lingers is, if passed into law, how will that money be spent? In an interview on the Federal Drive with Tom Temin, Shulkin outlined in detail some of the ways the Veteran Affairs Department would use the extra funds in a system of modernization projects, construction of new facilities and comprehensive public-private sector partnerships.

… These private-public partnerships would allow veterans to get best-in-class care at VA facilities and, when they needed to, take advantage of the services from community providers. It would alleviate some waiting times and give veterans more options for health care. Shulkin strongly urged that this idea was not an attempt to privatize VA operations, but to create a stronger and more modern system. He said even President Donald Trump’s budget proposal was supportive of improving more services within the VA, and not at all representative of someone supporting privatization. …

In 2014, the Department of Veterans Affairs was mired in a scandal. An inspector general’s report had found “systemic” manipulation by government officials to hide lengthy and growing wait times at its medical centers. … Spurred to action, Congress created a program aimed at temporarily alleviating the strain on the VA: Veterans who lived more than 40 miles from a health-care facility or who had to wait more than 30 days for an appointment could take their benefits outside the system and seek treatment from private doctors. …The Choice Program, as it was called, would allow veterans to get the care they needed while giving policy-makers time to make broader fixes at the Department of Veterans Affairs, which suffered from mismanagement and insufficient resources. Three years later, attempts by Republicans in Congress and the Trump administration to extend and significantly expand the Choice Program have given these groups and leading Democrats a new worry: a creeping privatization of the VA. …

The Senate on Monday easily confirmed physician David Shulkin to be secretary of Veterans Affairs, charged with delivering on President Donald Trump’s campaign promises to fix long-standing problems at the department. Senators voted 100-0 to approve the former Obama administration official, who was the VA’s top health official since 2015, in a rare show of bipartisanship amid partisan rancor over Trump’s other nominees. Shulkin secured the backing of Senate Democrats after pledging at his confirmation hearing to always protect veterans’ interests, even if it meant disagreeing at times with Trump. … The 57-year old physician has ruled out fully privatizing the agency and says wide-scale firings of VA employees are unnecessary, describing the VA workforce as “the best in health care.” … The immediate challenge includes revamping scheduling and access for VA medical appointments following a 2014 wait-time scandal. Shulkin is urging a more integrated VA network where veterans could seek outside private care only in coordination with the VA. He has not sketched out full details. “We’ve yet to hear from him how he’ll pursue President Trump’s vision for a public-private partnership at the VA,” said Dan Caldwell, policy director for the conservative group Concerned Veterans for America. …

]]>40262Daily understaffing persists at Grand Rapids Home for Veteranshttp://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/2017/08/new-legislation-to-require-regular-updates-on-state-run-veteran-homes-health-care-issues.htm
Wed, 16 Aug 2017 22:00:50 +0000http://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/?p=39903Source: Amy Biolchini, MLive, August 10, 2017 Understaffing at the Grand Rapids Home for Veterans continues to be a problem, according to an follow-up audit released by the state. That’s after the home entered into a new staffing contract in fall 2016. … However, most other major problems at the Grand Rapids Home for Veterans […]

Understaffing at the Grand Rapids Home for Veterans continues to be a problem, according to an follow-up audit released by the state. That’s after the home entered into a new staffing contract in fall 2016. … However, most other major problems at the Grand Rapids Home for Veterans identified in a blistering state audit in February 2016 have largely been resolved, the report found. …

Democratic State Representatives Winnie Brinks and Tim Greimel say Republican Attorney General Bill Schuette hasn’t gone far enough to hold officials with the Grand Rapids Home for Veterans and the state accountable for the poor conditions at the facility. “Why did it take so long to get some action? For years, our veterans were literally calling for help, pressing the help button beside their bed, and hearing silence,” Brinks, D-Grand Rapids, said at a Thursday, July 27, press conference in front of the home. This week Schuette announced felony charges for falsifying medical records against 11 former nursing assistants who worked for the former contractor, J2S Group Healthforce. His investigation found there wasn’t enough evidence to bring criminal charges over the five worst complaints about member treatment, in some of which veterans died. …

The lawsuit was filed by veteran Anthony Spallone intending to stop the on-going privatization at the time. Gov. Rick Snyder recommended taking state-employed care aides out the home and replace them with nurse aides hired by local contractor J2s. It was a contentious environment at the time as state aides lost their jobs and were replaced by people they considered to be less-skilled, less-experienced and cheaper. Union leaders did everything they could to stop the job losses including filing Spallone’s lawsuit. It alleged the privatization would lead to substandard care and contended J2S had a quote “dangerous track record of care”. Spallone’s attorney at the time was adamant veterans could be put in terrible situations with the privatization. …

]]>39903Outsourcing is not working and it hurts working Tennesseanshttp://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/2017/08/opinion-outsourcing-state-jobs-hurts-tennessee.htm
Fri, 11 Aug 2017 19:52:57 +0000http://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/?p=40221Source: Dwayne Thompson, Tennessean, August 10, 2017 Since August 2015, Gov. Bill Haslam’s administration has pushed a radical experiment in outsourcing that would turn thousands of state facilities workers jobs, millions of square feet of Tennesseans’ real estate, and hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to the multinational giant JLL. There has been widespread opposition to the […]

Since August 2015, Gov. Bill Haslam’s administration has pushed a radical experiment in outsourcing that would turn thousands of state facilities workers jobs, millions of square feet of Tennesseans’ real estate, and hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to the multinational giant JLL. There has been widespread opposition to the outsourcing plan. Facilities services workers, faculty, and staff have significant concerns that outsourcing will compromise the quality of services on which effective teaching, research and service rely. Students have spoken up about fears for safety if a revolving workforce replaces the workers they know and trust. …

The state of Tennessee has signed a facilities management contract to help the state provide the best service to citizens and employees at the lowest possible cost for taxpayers. The contract was awarded to Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) for five years with up to five one-year extensions. It allows the state of Tennessee’s various agencies and institutions to utilize JLL’s professional facilities management services. The potential scope covers over 7,500 state run properties spanning 97 million square feet. …

A judge has ruled in favor of a media group that sued the state of Tennessee to release records about its attempt to outsource services at Fall Creek Falls State Park. The Tennessee Coalition for Open Government says Davidson County Chancellor Bill Young on Tuesday ruled that the state must produce records to City Press Communications LLC, parent company of the Nashville Scene and the Nashville Post, and reporter Cari Wade Gervin. …

]]>40221Is Privatization on Its Way Out?http://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/2017/08/is-privatization-on-its-way-out.htm
Fri, 11 Aug 2017 16:07:31 +0000http://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/?p=41549Source: Donald Cohen, HuffPost, July 27, 2017 According to a new report by the Transnational Institute, cities across Europe are increasingly deciding to reclaim public goods like water, energy, and health care from corporations and private investors. For example, fourteen cities in the Catalonia region of Spain have brought their water under public control in […]

According to a new report by the Transnational Institute, cities across Europe are increasingly deciding to reclaim public goods like water, energy, and health care from corporations and private investors. For example, fourteen cities in the Catalonia region of Spain have brought their water under public control in the past two years alone. … As always, the movement is starting at the bottom. There’s Milford, Connecticut, a small city pushing to purchase its water system after learning that the corporation that owns it plans to raise rates by nearly 30 percent. There’s New York, which just brought back state workers to provide IT help desk services after concerns about rising costs in a contract with IBM. There’s Atlantic City, New Jersey, which earlier this month passed an ordinance to ensure residents get to vote on any action by the state to sell or lease the city’s water system. There’s Baltimore, Maryland, where teachers just recruited hundreds of new public school students after weeks of knocking on doors. And Miami, Florida, where parents and teachers rallied over the weekend to demand more funding for public education and regulation of charter schools.

]]>41549Massena Memorial CEO won’t give regular privatization updates to town board as transfer negotiations continuehttp://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/2017/08/massena-memorial-hospital-narrows-field-of-prospective-affiliates-months-to-go-before-privatization-approval.htm
Fri, 11 Aug 2017 13:08:45 +0000http://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/?p=40227Source: Andy Gardner, North Country Now, July 20, 2017 The Massena Memorial Hospital CEO will no longer give regular updates on the hospital’s privatization process at monthly Town Council meetings. The town board and the MMH board are negotiating an asset transfer deal to determine how the town will be compensated for its asset […]

The Massena Memorial Hospital CEO will no longer give regular updates on the hospital’s privatization process at monthly Town Council meetings. The town board and the MMH board are negotiating an asset transfer deal to determine how the town will be compensated for its asset once MMH privatizes. … In addition to the asset transfer, the hospital is waiting for their 501c3 application from the IRS, and trying to pick an affiliate. Wolleben earlier this year at a town board meeting said he hoped at the MMH meeting the following week, but it didn’t happen. That was in February. The only updates he has given in public is they are looking at two potential affiliates, one in eastern New York and one in the western part of the state. Gray implied that MMH officials may have whittled that number down to one. …

Massena Memorial Hospital officials are still not close to publicly naming the health system with which they want to affiliate. MMH is going through the process of privatizing, which includes picking a bigger system which they will join to some degree. Although CEO Robert Wolleben late last year said he was hopeful they could name the potential affiliate by February, but on Monday MMH board finance committee chairman Scott Wilson said he can’t commit to them being able give the name by next month. …

Town councilors declined to comment when an official from Massena Memorial Hospital’s CSEA chapter asked for an update on the asset transfer process. MMH is in the process of going from a town-owned hospital to a private, non-profit entity. Part of that process involves a valuation of all hospital assets so the town can be compensated. “Anything we’ve discussed is of a confidential nature. I don’t think we should discuss it,” Councilman Steve O’Shaughnessy replied after local CSEA Vice President Kerrie French asked for an update at the Wednesday town meeting. …

About 500 University of California workers and students protested the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center’s treatment of contracted valet service workers outside the medical center Friday. Valet service workers, who help park visitor and guest vehicles at the medical center, are contracted through ABM, a facility management company. Beginning in August, however, the hospital will lay off many valet workers because it will no longer be contracting out valet services, said hospital spokesperson Tami Dennis. Instead, it will offer in-sourced full-time, part-time and student positions. … John de los Angeles, communications director of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees 3299, the UC’s largest union, said the medical center would only offer 30 positions for the in-sourced program, even though the program currently employs 80 workers. Several students and workers said they think the hospital will carry out the layoffs because the contract workers received a pay raise. …

]]>41520Privatization Is Changing America’s Relationship With Its Physical Stuffhttp://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/2017/07/trumps-transition-team-is-stacked-with-privatization-enthusiasts.htm
Mon, 17 Jul 2017 19:39:41 +0000http://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/?p=40250Source: Brian Alexander, The Atlantic, July 12, 2017 … As vague as Trump’s pronouncements have been on the matter, it is clear that the general thrust behind the promised building-and-repair push involves using federal dollars as up-front investment to entice private enterprises to provide most of the financing. While Democrats announced their opposition, the […]

… As vague as Trump’s pronouncements have been on the matter, it is clear that the general thrust behind the promised building-and-repair push involves using federal dollars as up-front investment to entice private enterprises to provide most of the financing. While Democrats announced their opposition, the general idea of increased privatization of infrastructure has had a bipartisan cast. President Obama supported a plan to create an “infrastructure bank” that would help finance so-called public-private partnerships (known, for their alliteration, as P3s), but that idea fizzled under the glare of Republican opposition. He also floated the idea of selling off the Tennessee Valley Authority. …

Today, I read two articles centered on this idea, both of which concerned Vice President Mike Pence – and one that concerned Pence’s role in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. One article also included a sprinkling of US secretary of [privatized] education, Betsy DeVos. A major goal of corporate education reform is to deliver public education to private entities (corporations, or even nonprofits, but don’t think that an entity termed “nonprofit” cannot be a handsome money dispenser for those running the nonprofit and doling out contracts). However, the extreme-right-Republican aim does not end with public education but with delivering the operation of the entire American infrastructure to private entities. In the end, what this entails is having private corporations front money to state and local governments in order to lease back to the public what the public already owns.

… Now President Trump is poised to continue privatization and private contracting in all kinds of industries, from education to incarceration. Here & Now’s Jeremy Hobson looks at the history and politics of privatization with Donald Cohen and Shahrzad Habibi of the group In The Public Interest. …

]]>40250Feds stop requiring bi-weekly Kansas reports on Medicaidhttp://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/2017/07/report-questions-health-claims-of-medicaid-privatization-in-kansas.htm
Mon, 17 Jul 2017 19:02:02 +0000http://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/?p=40032Source: Associated Press, July 12, 2017 Federal officials are no longer requiring Kansas to file bi-weekly reports on a large backlog of applicants for the state’s privatized Medicaid program. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment was notified last week by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid that the state can discontinue the reports it has been sending […]

Federal officials are no longer requiring Kansas to file bi-weekly reports on a large backlog of applicants for the state’s privatized Medicaid program. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment was notified last week by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid that the state can discontinue the reports it has been sending since early 2006. At the time, Kansas had more than 7,000 backlogged applications that had been pending for more than 45 days for its Medicaid program, called KanCare. …

The Kansas House failed by a narrow margin Monday to override Gov. Sam Brownback’s veto of a bill that would expand Medicaid to thousands of low-income Kansans. Lawmakers voted 81-44 to override the governor’s veto, three shy of the total needed to pass the bill without his support. That effectively ends the Medicaid expansion push in Kansas after it passed out of both chambers with Republican and Democratic support earlier this year. … The legislation vetoed by Brownback would have expanded KanCare, the state’s privatized Medicaid program, to roughly 150,000 people in the state. …

Governor Sam Brownback of Kansas on Thursday vetoed legislation expanding Medicaid passed with Republican majorities in the state’s House and Senate. Supporters of the bill are likely a few votes shy of the two-thirds majority needed to override Brownback’s veto. The move was expected, since Brownback has opposed expanding Medicaid for years. But the expansion effort could find new life if the governor leaves office before his term ends next year; President Trump is reportedly considering an appointment for Brownback as U.N. ambassador for food agriculture, a posting that would take the one-time presidential candidate from Topeka to Rome. …

]]>40032Hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on the table in closed-door Medicaid hagglinghttp://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/2017/07/local-organizations-worry-iowas-medicaid-privatization-program-will-hurt-clients.htm
Tue, 11 Jul 2017 17:09:31 +0000http://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/?p=40267Source: Tony Leys, Des Moines Register, July 3, 2017 The three companies running Iowa’s $4 billion Medicaid program contend they need millions more dollars from taxpayers, starting this month — but there’s been no public hint of how much more money the state will have to fork over. Iowa hired the companies last year to […]

The three companies running Iowa’s $4 billion Medicaid program contend they need millions more dollars from taxpayers, starting this month — but there’s been no public hint of how much more money the state will have to fork over. Iowa hired the companies last year to manage the state’s Medicaid program, which covers health care for about 600,000 poor or disabled residents. The shift has been intensely controversial, with critics complaining it has led to tangles of red tape for care providers and cuts in services for Medicaid recipients. Supporters, including Gov. Kim Reynolds, say the new system is saving money for the state by leading to more efficient, effective care. …

Iowa’s roiling controversy over its for-profit Medicaid management spilled into federal court Tuesday when six Iowans with disabilities filed a lawsuit against Gov. Kim Reynolds. The lawsuit alleges that the state’s chaotic shift to a privately run Medicaid program is depriving thousands of Iowans with disabilities the legal right to live safely outside of care facilities. The suit holds Reynolds and her human services director responsible for the private management companies’ actions. …

Centered largely on allegations of terminated or reduced health services, complaints about Iowa’s privatized Medicaid program have spiked in recent months, according to information presented to state officials Tuesday. State quarterly reports show grievances and appeals filed with the three companies managing Iowa’s Medicaid program have spiked by almost 270 percent — from 343 to 1,268 — in the latest three-month report published in March. …

]]>40267Pottstown, Phoenixville schools eye tax cost of hospital salehttp://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/2017/06/pottstown-phoenixville-schools-eye-tax-cost-of-hospital-sale.htm
Thu, 29 Jun 2017 15:11:42 +0000http://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/?p=41427Source: Evan Brandt, The Mercury, June 16, 2017 … The potential sale of Pottstown and Phoenixville hospitals to a nonprofit company is being viewed with foreboding by business officials in school districts that stand to lose millions in property tax revenues. Officials at both Pottstown and Phoenxiville school districts said the respective hospitals in each […]

… The potential sale of Pottstown and Phoenixville hospitals to a nonprofit company is being viewed with foreboding by business officials in school districts that stand to lose millions in property tax revenues. Officials at both Pottstown and Phoenxiville school districts said the respective hospitals in each borough are their largest property taxpayer. And each said that if the sale of the two hospitals — now owned by the Tennessee-based for-profit Community Health Systems — to the nonprofit Reading Health Systems goes through, they stand to lose as much as $900,000 a year or more in tax revenues. …

Struggling Community Health Systems has agreed to sell five hospitals in Pennsylvania to the not-for-profit Reading Health System. The five hospitals are part of the 30 hospitals that Franklin, Tenn.-based CHS has agreed to sell to reduce a $15 billion debt burden. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. They are169-bed Brandywine Hospital in Coatesville, 148-bed Chestnut Hill Hospital in Philadelphia, 63-bed Jennersville Hospital in West Grove, 151-bed Phoenixville Hospital in Phoenixville and 232-bed Pottstown Memorial Medical Center in Pottstown. …

]]>41427Paul Ryan Still Talking Up The Idea Of Privatizing Medicarehttp://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/2017/05/seema-vermas-austere-vision-for-medicaid.htm
Mon, 15 May 2017 13:19:28 +0000http://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/?p=40681Source: Tierney Sneed, Talking Points Memo, May 12, 2017 House Speaker Paul Ryan hasn’t let go of his cherished idea of privatizing Medicare and in an interview with a local Wisconsin radio station Friday, suggested that a blueprint for overhauling Medicare would advance in the Budget Committee again this year. … Ryan has released various […]

House Speaker Paul Ryan hasn’t let go of his cherished idea of privatizing Medicare and in an interview with a local Wisconsin radio station Friday, suggested that a blueprint for overhauling Medicare would advance in the Budget Committee again this year. … Ryan has released various versions of his so-called “Path to Prosperity” budget blueprint that have included a privatization of Medicare. The general idea he has promoted is turning Medicare into a so-called “premium support” system — i.e. a voucher system — in which seniors would get a set amount of money to shop around for private health care plans. Earlier versions of his proposal would have lead to a phase-out of Medicare altogether. Some experts have argued that even the most recent iteration of his blueprint, which ostensibly leaves some form of traditional Medicare available, would eventually lead to its phase-out as well. … It’s not just Ryan that’s trying to make Medicare privatization happen. Trump’s Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney, a former House member with a reputation as a budget hawk, said last month that it was his “guess is the House will do either that or something similar to that.” …

… What the bill would do to Medicaid, the health care program for poor, elderly, and disabled Americans, plays right into the hands of private contractors looking to score big on taxpayer money. By including Medicaid “block grants,” which is a fancy way of saying “cuts,” the bill would force states to slash costs. And when budgets are tight, corporations come calling, claiming they’ll do the work cheaper, better, and faster. But, whether it’s running private prisons or operating water utilities, their claims often ring hollow, especially when it comes to helping those on the margins of society. Just look at what happened to cash assistance for families with children, known as “TANF.” After the program was block granted in 1996, a cottage industry sprung up to squeeze profits from the limited pool of welfare funds. Within five years, over $1.5 billion in taxpayer dollars meant for poor families had gone to contractors like IBM and Lockheed Martin. By 2014, only 26 percent of TANF dollars were going to basic assistance for poor families. … Over 60 percent of nursing home residents and two in five kids in the U.S. rely on the program. It’s also the main public funding source for family planning, like contraceptive counseling and care, and screenings for sexually transmitted infections and cancer.

… The struggle to protect Medicaid, let alone expand it, will only get tougher. On Wednesday, the Senate confirmed Seema Verma, a private health care consultant, to lead the agency in charge of the program. Verma supports block grants and has helped a number of states, including Iowa, privatize their Medicaid programs. Less than a year in, Iowa’s privatized program is spinning into disaster for 600,000 poor, elderly, and disabled Iowans. If Trump wanted somebody who knows the corporate takeover of Medicaid in and out, he certainly found her. While helping Indiana overhaul its program, Verma was also on the payroll of one of the state’s largest Medicaid vendors, Hewlett-Packard. …

The Senate voted to clear Seema Verma to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services under President Trump. Verma was confirmed in a 55-43 vote Monday evening. She will now be dropped into the fight over how to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act and is expected to play a large role in any attempt to reform either Medicare or Medicaid. … Democrats largely said they opposed Verma’s nomination after trying unsuccessfully to pin her down on a number of policy issues during her confirmation hearing, including if or how she would reform the programs.

]]>40681Texas Lawmakers: Investigate State Contract with Anti-Choice Grouphttp://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/2017/04/texas-lawmakers-investigate-state-contract-with-anti-choice-group.htm
Tue, 04 Apr 2017 16:12:18 +0000http://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/?p=41174Source: Teddy Wilson, Rewire, March 22, 2017 Eight months after Texas officials gave an anti-choice crusader’s organization a contract to provide low-income people with access to health care, there are questions from lawmakers and advocates about the apparent failure of the organization to deliver those services. Both Republican and Democratic state lawmakers are calling for […]

Eight months after Texas officials gave an anti-choice crusader’s organization a contract to provide low-income people with access to health care, there are questions from lawmakers and advocates about the apparent failure of the organization to deliver those services. Both Republican and Democratic state lawmakers are calling for an investigation into how a contract was awarded to The Heidi Group, an anti-choice organization that has no history of providing health care or similar services, and why taxpayer dollars are being used to promote the anti-choice pseudoscience of so-called “abortion pill reversal.” … The Texas House General Investigating and Ethics Committee will began holding hearings in the coming weeks, and Howard told Rewire that she has talked to members of the committee who indicated there should be questions about women’s health contracts, specifically the one with The Heidi Group. Rep. Sarah Davis (R-West University Place), chairperson of the committee, questioned state officials last week about the Heidi Group contract during a committee hearing. Davis indicated the committee will scrutinize how the Heidi Group contract was awarded, reported the Associated Press.

… The Heidi Group was awarded a $1.6 million contract to provide family planning services through HTWP; the former Planned Parenthood clinic site in Bryan was included in Everett’s proposal.The Heidi Group had never before provided health care services, and has focused predominantly on supporting anti-choice crisis pregnancy centers. … The Heidi Group also appears to be funneling taxpayer dollars to fake clinics. … Eight months after the The Heidi Group was awarded the contract, the organization is “quietly sputtering” and has “little to show,” according to a report by the Associated Press. …

]]>41174Souki: Hospital subsidies will return to budgethttp://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/2017/03/interim-hhsc-maui-region-chief-named.htm
Thu, 30 Mar 2017 23:19:15 +0000http://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/?p=39570Colleen Uechi, Maui News, March 29, 2017 State lawmakers said Tuesday that funds for the future operation of three Maui County hospitals under Kaiser Permanente likely will be returned to the budget, after the House Finance Committee removed it earlier this month, concerning hospital officials. House Speaker Joe Souki of Maui said Tuesday that “there’s […]

State lawmakers said Tuesday that funds for the future operation of three Maui County hospitals under Kaiser Permanente likely will be returned to the budget, after the House Finance Committee removed it earlier this month, concerning hospital officials. House Speaker Joe Souki of Maui said Tuesday that “there’s a general agreement between both sides” that funding for the hospitals would be restored in conference budget talks. … But the transition stalled due to a United Public Workers lawsuit claiming that the public-private partnership impaired a contract between the state and the union. By the time both parties had reached a settlement, Kaiser and the state had decided to push the transition date to July 1 of this year.

Longtime Maui Memorial Medical Center Dr. Barry Shitamoto has been selected as interim chief executive officer of Hawaii Health Systems Corp.’s Maui Region, effective Nov. 1, according to an announcement. Shitamoto will replace Wesley Lo, current Maui Region chief executive office, who announced earlier this month that he would leave Oct. 31 to take over as chief executive officer at Hale Makua Health Services. … Last year, lawmakers passed a measure to privatize Maui Region hospitals. And, in January, the governor signed a deal to transfer hospital operations to Kaiser Permanente. The transfer was supposed to take effect July 1, but it has been blocked by hospital worker unions. Kaiser has said it plans to take over hospital operations July 1, a year later than the original transfer date. The current changeover date is a day after the expiration of labor contracts with the United Public Workers union and Hawaii Government Employees Association. The UPW has 536 blue-collar employees at Maui Region hospitals, and the HGEA represents 900 white-collar employees, including nurses and supervisors. …

Four state senators are calling on the governor to address ongoing uncertainty at Maui Memorial Medical Center, which is being privatized. It’s a situation they say has life or death consequences if it isn’t resolved soon. … The lawmakers want Ige to reconvene a special session to address unresolved concerns regarding severance packages and retirement benefits for the public hospital workers affected by the transfer to Kaiser Permanente. In August, Gov. David Ige announced he and the union representing more than 500 Maui County hospital workers had reached a settlement over the transfer, but lawmakers say they have yet to see a signed deal. They say speculation about what might happen is impacting the hospital workforce and jeopardizing medical services. … State Sen. J. Kalani English, whose district includes east and Upcountry Maui, says the Legislature stands ready to assist the governor with this complicated transition — they just need to be called back into a special session. He says lawmakers are willing to consider emergency funding if the hold-up is money. If it’s a policy issue, he says they’re willing to examine changes that may need to happen. One issue that’s come up, for example, is sick leave. Officials say an estimated 25 percent of the Maui hospital work force has been calling in sick daily. …

]]>39570Governor agrees to direct-care worker raiseshttp://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/2017/03/governor-agrees-to-direct-care-worker-raises.htm
Thu, 30 Mar 2017 19:30:31 +0000http://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/?p=41127Source: Ben Gocker, Adirondack Daily Enterprise, March 30, 2017 Gov. Andrew Cuomo surpassed the state Legislature Tuesday in offering pay raises to people who work with those with disabilities. Cuomo’s $55 million goes beyond $45 million proposed by both the state Senate and Assembly. Cuomo had not included any increases for these workers in his […]

Gov. Andrew Cuomo surpassed the state Legislature Tuesday in offering pay raises to people who work with those with disabilities. Cuomo’s $55 million goes beyond $45 million proposed by both the state Senate and Assembly. Cuomo had not included any increases for these workers in his initial state budget in January. The size of the increase will be worked out in ongoing budget negotiations between the two legislative chambers and the governor. The additional funds would help direct-support professionals who work for nonprofit organizations that contract with the state, such as the Adirondack Arc and Citizen Advocates, but not workers for state agencies such as the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities, who tend to have better pay and benefits. … #bFair2DirectCare, a statewide coalition of advocates for New Yorkers with developmental disabilities, their families and their direct care providers, has been fighting for better pay for these private-sector workers. … Most of the funding Adirondack Arc receives comes from Medicaid, and CEO Sadie Spada said consistent cuts to Medicaid affect her organization’s ability to pay workers what they deserve. …

]]>41127Pinecrest staffers face almost daily patient assaults in wake of cutbacks, officials sayhttp://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/2017/03/jindal-looks-to-privatize-health-care-programs.htm
Mon, 27 Mar 2017 21:50:10 +0000http://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/?p=28862Source: Mark Ballard, The Advocate, March 25, 2017 The state’s efforts to privatize and economize health care at the state’s remaining facility for the intellectually impaired have resulted in regular assaults on staff by patients, state officials have discovered. Almost every day, sometimes several times a day, a mentally impaired resident at Pinecrest punches, […]

The state’s efforts to privatize and economize health care at the state’s remaining facility for the intellectually impaired have resulted in regular assaults on staff by patients, state officials have discovered. Almost every day, sometimes several times a day, a mentally impaired resident at Pinecrest punches, bites or otherwise violently lashes out at the mostly middle-aged women who help the individuals dress, eat and function in the world. The sudden and dramatic increase in violent attacks is an unintended consequence of “real quick privatization,” says Louisiana Department of Health Deputy Secretary Michelle Alletto, whose responsibilities include the 95-year-old facility near Pineville. Looking to save money, the state slashed budgets, laid off personnel and in 2013 closed other public facilities, intending to send the bulk of the patients to small, privately-owned group homes in communities around the state where their needs could be addressed on a more individualized basis. Pinecrest Supports and Services Center got the rest. … Budget cuts in other state agencies limited programs that treated these individuals in the past.

… For the 12 months prior to Feb. 28, the staff filed 524 reports, required by workers compensation regulations, for incidents at the facility where three years ago virtually no violence took place. … Perry, an officer in the employees union, says worker’s comp forms are only the tip of the violence iceberg because no publicly available forms are filled out unless the “slap leaves a mark.” Local 712 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees began collecting statements from its members that provide a little more detail. … Many of the statements collected by the union complained about how they are unprotected by police and, often, are removed from direct patient care. … But the staff has lost its patience, says James Ray, AFSCME field representative and a Methodist minister. “They always say be patient, it’s going to get better. But the state, as an employer, has a legal obligation to provide a safe workplace, which they are not doing,” he said.

In an overheated Holiday Inn banquet room Thursday morning, business leaders made pitches for privatizing a $2 billion slice of the state’s health care business. United Healthcare, Amerigroup Louisiana, Louisiana Healthcare Connections and LifeShare Management Group are interested in managing the long-term care needs of 73,000 Medicaid-eligible people. The companies want to oversee the personal care, doctor’s visits, transportation, hospitalizations and other daily needs of people with disabilities, as well as those with age-related or adult-onset challenges.

The state Department of Health and Hospitals is taking preliminary steps to further privatize Medicaid in Louisiana. In August, DHH released a concept paper about reforms to long-term care for the developmentally disabled and low-income elderly.

In a nutshell, the department wants to bring in a private managed care organization – or MCO – to create a network of healthcare providers to serve those populations. Proponents of private MCOs claim they save money, cut down on fraud and improve the quality of care. The state Dept. of Health and Hospitals is looking to privatize the managed care for Medicaid patients with developmental disabilities and low-income elderly. Other stakeholders and advocates for the disabled and elderly throughout the state, for the most part, welcome reform but skepticism remains….

]]>28862Hospice owner sentenced to 6 years in $20 million SNF kickback schemehttp://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/2017/03/hospice-owner-sentenced-to-6-years-in-20-million-snf-kickback-scheme.htm
Fri, 24 Mar 2017 14:30:40 +0000http://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/?p=41030Source: Emily Mongan, McKnight’s, March 9, 2017 The owner of an Illinois hospice company was sentenced to six and a half years in federal prison on Tuesday for his role in a Medicare fraud scheme that paid kickbacks to nursing homes. Seth Gillman owned Passages Hospice LLC, which grew to be the largest hospice provider […]

The owner of an Illinois hospice company was sentenced to six and a half years in federal prison on Tuesday for his role in a Medicare fraud scheme that paid kickbacks to nursing homes. Seth Gillman owned Passages Hospice LLC, which grew to be the largest hospice provider in the state before Gillman was charged in 2014 with inappropriately designating nursing home residents as hospice patients and overbilling for hospice services. Gillman also was accused of paying kickbacks to nursing homes that participated in the scheme, as well as providing residents of his family’s nursing home chain, Asta Healthcare, with fraudulent hospice services through Passages. Those residents often received services for years, far beyond the six-month cap in place for federal funding for hospice services, authorities said. The family of some former Passages patients told the Chicago Tribune that employees told them their loved ones were terminally ill, when they actually weren’t, in order to move them to hospice care or the more lucrative general inpatient care, or GIP. …

]]>41030New York’s largest for-profit SNF operator kept nurses in ‘indentured servitude,’ lawsuit claimshttp://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/2017/03/how-n-y-s-biggest-for-profit-nursing-home-group-flourishes-despite-a-record-of-patient-harm-2.htm
Thu, 23 Mar 2017 21:28:25 +0000http://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/?p=36320Source: Emily Mongan, McKnight’s March 14, 2017 New York’s largest for-profit nursing home group allegedly kept more than 350 Filipino nurses in “indentured servitude” and sued those who tried to quit, according to a class action complaint filed last week. The complaint was filed against SentosaCare by former employee and registered nurse Rose Ann Paguirigan. […]

New York’s largest for-profit nursing home group allegedly kept more than 350 Filipino nurses in “indentured servitude” and sued those who tried to quit, according to a class action complaint filed last week. The complaint was filed against SentosaCare by former employee and registered nurse Rose Ann Paguirigan. She said she was recruited from the Philippines to work for SentosaCare and eventually signed a contract to work for a Staten Island facility operated by the provider. The contract stated that Paguirigan would be employed full time as a registered nurse and paid a base salary; instead, she was employed as an RN manager, given 35 hours of work each week and paid less than the wage stated in the contract. Similar contracts were signed by hundreds of other foreign nurses recruited by the company, although SentosaCare and its recruiter, Prompt Nursing Recruitment Agency, have “policies and practices” to not give foreign nurses full time work or pay them the prevailing wage, Paguirigan’s complaint states. The filing also claims that the provider maintains a “deliberate scheme, pattern and plan” meant to convince foreign nurses that they would “suffer serious harm” if they quit the company or tried to find work elsewhere. This scheme included a reported $25,000 penalty placed in the nurses’ contracts that they must pay if they left SentosaCare before the end of their contract term. …

Charlie Stewart was looking forward to getting out of the nursing home in time for his 60th birthday. On his planned release day, in late 2012, the Long Island facility instead called Stewart’s wife to say he was being sent to the hospital with a fever. When his wife, Jeanne, met him there, the stench of rotting flesh made it difficult to sit near her husband. The small wounds on his right foot that had been healing when Stewart entered the nursing home now blackened his entire shin. … Doctors told Stewart the infection in his leg was poisoning his body. To save his life, they would have to amputate above the knee. Stewart had spent about six weeks recovering from a diabetic emergency at Avalon Gardens Rehabilitation & Health Care Center on Long Island. The nursing home is one of several in a group of for-profit homes affiliated with SentosaCare, LLC, that have a record of repeat fines, violations and complaints for deficient care in recent years.

Despite that record, SentosaCare founder Benjamin Landa, partner Bent Philipson and family members have been able to expand their nursing home ownerships in New York, easily clearing regulatory reviews meant to be a check on repeat offenders. SentosaCare is now the state’s largest nursing home network, with at least 25 facilities and nearly 5,400 beds. …

The decision maker in these deals is the state’s Public Health and Health Planning Council, a body of appointed officials, many from inside the health care industry. The council has substantial leverage to press nursing home applicants to improve quality, but an examination of dozens of transactions in recent years show that power is seldom used. Moreover, records show that the council hasn’t always had complete information about all the violations and fines at nursing homes owned by or affiliated with applicants it reviewed. That’s because the Department of Health, which prepares character-and-competence recommendations for the council, doesn’t report them all. … Thirteen of SentosaCare’s homes (though not Avalon Gardens) have Medicare’s bottom score for nurse staffing. Inspection reports also show that at least seven residents have wandered away from the SentosaCare affiliated facilities in recent years — including one who froze to death in 2011. Inspectors and prosecutors have found that staff falsified records in some cases. Dozens of patients at SentosaCare homes have experienced long delays before receiving necessary care; some ended up in hospitals.

]]>36320$2M savings may result in $42M loss for La. Medicaidhttp://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/2017/03/2m-savings-may-result-in-42m-loss-for-la-medicaid.htm
Thu, 23 Mar 2017 18:49:08 +0000http://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/?p=41024Source: David Hammer, WWL, March 8, 2017 When former Gov. Bobby Jindal’s administration ended a $2 million debt-collection contract in 2014, nobody batted an eye. After all, the state faced a mind-blowing $1.6 billion budget deficit and welcomed any bit of spending that could be cut. But that small savings may have actually created a […]

When former Gov. Bobby Jindal’s administration ended a $2 million debt-collection contract in 2014, nobody batted an eye. After all, the state faced a mind-blowing $1.6 billion budget deficit and welcomed any bit of spending that could be cut. But that small savings may have actually created a $42 million loss for the state’s federally funded Medicaid program over the last two years. That’s more than the $40 million the Legislature recently had to slash from the Health Department to cover yet another budget shortfall. By letting a contract with New York-based HMS expire in December 2014, the state went more than 14 months without anyone identifying and recovering money for Medicaid bills that should have been paid by third parties – like an auto insurance company on the hook for a Medicaid recipient’s health expenses after a crash, or a private health insurance plan that should have covered an illness but didn’t, instead leaving Medicaid, the taxpayer-funded payer-of-last-resort, holding the bag.

.. When Gov. John Bel Edwards took over last year, his Department of Health was facing $29 million in these uncollected third-party liabilities. And the former contractor responsible for collecting third-party liabilities, HMS, was embroiled in a trade-secret lawsuit with a competitor, Public Consulting Group Inc., which was also seeking the collection contract in Louisiana. Finally, Public Consulting Group settled the lawsuit last year and agreed to not compete with HMS for contracts for seven years. Louisiana rehired HMS under a $2.1 million emergency contract last summer. According to a state legislative audit, HMS estimated the uncollected amount of third-party liabilities at $42 million by the end of 2016, but because of the large gaps in collections work, the Department of Health couldn’t be sure of that figure. … But the audit also identified $18 million in receivables the state may never be able to recover. … There was some hope that by shifting to what’s called a managed-care payment system, the state’s Medicaid program wouldn’t need to pay a company like HMS to collect third-party liabilities; the private managed care organizations hired by the state to make Medicaid payments would take care of that duty. But a significant portion of Medicaid costs in Louisiana are still paid under the old fee-for-service model, without a private managed care organization acting as a middle man. …

Magnolia Health Corporation, a Visalia, Calif.-based company that operates health care and assisted living facilities throughout California’s Central Valley, will pay $325,000 and furnish other relief to settle a disability discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency announced today. EEOC filed suit against the company in September 2015, charging that since 2012, Magnolia had discriminated against a class of applicants and employees on the basis of their disability, having a record of a disability, or being perceived as having one. EEOC said that Magnolia denied employees accommodations for their disabilities, and refused to hire, or fired, applicants and employees who had disabilities or were regarded as such. EEOC also said that Magnolia rescinded employment offers when applicants’ post-offer medical examinations indicated that they had a record of a disability or had current medical restrictions. EEOC further charged that Magnolia required employees be completely free of medical restrictions to work. Such alleged conduct violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). …

Abstract:
Concerned about exploitative profiteers opening fly-by-night colleges to defraud students and then seeking respite in bankruptcy court, Congress chose to effectively preclude all institutions of higher education from reorganizing in bankruptcy court. This Article contributes to the literature on higher education bankruptcies by explaining why Congress’ solution could never achieve its fraud-prevention goal. It also compares the bankruptcy treatment of healthcare enterprises to that of higher education enterprises to support this claim.

]]>40954Lawmakers Hear Testimony Concerning Privatizing DDS Carehttp://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/2017/03/connecticut-unions-say-state-needs-to-negotiate-privatization.htm
Thu, 16 Mar 2017 16:08:14 +0000http://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/?p=39768Source: Todd Piro, NBC Connecticut, March 8, 2017 Beverly Laporte of East Hartford worries about what will happen to her son Robbie if he is moved from his group home in South Windsor to private care. Laporte joined others at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford on Tuesday, testifying in front of the Public Health […]

Beverly Laporte of East Hartford worries about what will happen to her son Robbie if he is moved from his group home in South Windsor to private care. Laporte joined others at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford on Tuesday, testifying in front of the Public Health Committee against privatizing Department of Developmental Services care for their relatives. … At issue, of course, is money. Non-profit providers, through The Alliance, which provides a voice for community non-profits, say they can provide the highest quality of care at a fraction of the cost, saving the cash-strapped state $150 million dollars per year in residential care alone. … Some like Laporte are not convinced, arguing that because many private employees in the caregiving field are paid less than their public counterparts, there is a high turnover rate that hurts continuity of care. … Wednesday’s testimony was just one part of the larger battle that will be going on throughout the session.

Two state unions representing workers at the Department of Developmental Services filed a lawsuit Thursday alleging the state can’t move forward with privatizing group homes without negotiating first with the unions. The Connecticut State Employees Association, SEIU Local 2011 and New England Health Care Employees Union District 1199 sought an injunction in Hartford Superior Court to stop the privatization from moving forward until negotiations are completed. Department of Development Services Commission Morna Murray announced in August that the state was moving forward with a plan to convert 30 group homes to private operation by Jan. 1, 2017. The agency also closed two regional centers in Meriden and Stratford. The plan is expected to save the agency $42 million in 2017 and $70 million in 2018. …

State employee unions plan to ask a judge to block the privatization of group homes for people with intellectual or developmental disabilities, saying the layoffs caused by those changes violate Connecticut law and will eventually be blocked by the state labor board. If that happens, the unions say in their request for an injunction, clients would have their lives upended twice – first by having to go through a change in staff in state-run group homes where they have developed relationships with caregivers, and then again if the labor board orders the laid-off state employees to be reinstated. … The unions, CSEA-SEIU Local 2001 and SEIU 1199, New England, represent nearly 500 workers who are expected to be laid off because of the Department of Developmental Services’ plans to privatize the services they provide. The workers include staff at state-run group homes and institutions, and those who provide job support, education, physical and speech therapy, health care and other services to people with intellectual or developmental disabilities. Both unions filed a complaint with the state Board of Labor Relations earlier this week, alleging that DDS broke the law by failing to bargain with them over the decision to outsource the work. … The Malloy administration plans to privatize 40 group homes, as well as services for people with intellectual or developmental disabilities – moves aimed at saving the state nearly $70 million per year by next fiscal year. Overall, the plan is expected to eliminate 605 state jobs. In an August memo detailing the plans, budget director Benjamin Barnes wrote that the state was requesting that the private providers give hiring preferences, when possible, to state employees who lose their jobs because of the changes. …

]]>39768Murray State Board of Regents Discuss Budget, Legislation, More in February Meetinghttp://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/2017/03/murray-state-board-of-regents-discuss-budget-legislation-more-in-february-meeting.htm
Wed, 01 Mar 2017 19:00:07 +0000http://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/?p=40791Source: Matt Markgraf, WKMS, February 25, 2017 … The Board considered options to reform or outsource healthcare and mental health services for students, faculty and staff, based on recommendations from consulting group Hodgkins Beckley on Friday. Options include increasing the budget for services provided, outsourcing services to a contracted health provider as Western Kentucky University […]

… The Board considered options to reform or outsource healthcare and mental health services for students, faculty and staff, based on recommendations from consulting group Hodgkins Beckley on Friday. Options include increasing the budget for services provided, outsourcing services to a contracted health provider as Western Kentucky University has done, shifting costs out of the budget by adding a mandatory fee of around $150 dollars per student or implementing insurance and Medicaid. … MSU health services currently cost around $925,000 a year: $529,000 for health care and $396,000 for counseling. The board weighed pros and cons of six options as presented. … The third option outsources health services but keeps counseling services on campus. Urgent care clinics would be contracted to come on campus to operate services. Students would pay for the visit or use insurance or Medicaid. Employees could use insurance. While this option would significantly reduce costs, there would still be some cost the university attached. Western Kentucky University has a model like this one. The fourth option outsources services, provides funding for short term counseling, health services would be based on insurance. This is different than the third as it’s more insurance-based. … Regent Chair Steve Williams said the presentation was “food for thought” and offered a starting point for further discussion. …

]]>40791Osawatomie Contract Bidder Has History Of Safety Issues At Its Florida Psychiatric Facilitieshttp://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/2017/02/privatization-considered-at-osawatomie-state-hospital.htm
Fri, 24 Feb 2017 17:30:23 +0000http://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/?p=40064Source: Meg Wingerter, KMUW, February 23, 2017 Correct Care Solutions, a Tennessee-based company that is the sole bidder for a contract to operate Osawatomie State Hospital, has a history of safety problems at the state psychiatric facilities it runs in Florida. Officials with the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services (KDADS) declined to provide […]

Correct Care Solutions, a Tennessee-based company that is the sole bidder for a contract to operate Osawatomie State Hospital, has a history of safety problems at the state psychiatric facilities it runs in Florida. Officials with the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services (KDADS) declined to provide details this week on Correct Care’s bid to operate Osawatomie State Hospital, one of two state facilities for people deemed a danger to themselves or others. The department is evaluating the proposal and hasn’t given a timeline for whether or when it would bring it before the Legislature. Under a law they approved last year, lawmakers must approve the contract before KDADS can move forward. …

A key Kansas lawmaker says the state doesn’t have the money to fix problems in its mental health system, which a new report says are getting steadily worse. The report, the second from a task force created in 2015 to advise the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services, says the system has continued to deteriorate. The task force’s first report, issued about 18 months ago, concluded the system was “stretched beyond its ability to provide the right care at the right time in the right place.” Rep. Brenda Landwehr, who chairs the House Social Services Budget Committee, agreed there are substantial gaps in the system but said lawmakers are virtually powerless to respond because of the depth of the state’s budget problems. … Given the amount of projected red ink, Landwehr said the state can’t afford to implement task force recommendations that would require significant new spending. Specifically, she said, it can’t afford to add psychiatric residential services for people covered by KanCare, the state’s privatized Medicaid program. … In the updated report, task force members also signaled their opposition to privatizing Osawatomie State Hospital, citing concerns about the quality of care delivered by for-profit contractors in other states. … More than 60 [House members] have signed on to a bill that would prohibit the privatization of either of the state’s mental health hospitals unless authorized by the Legislature. …

After more than a year of improvements, renovations and the pursuit of recertification, the Osawatomie State Hospital’s (OSH) future continues to remain in a state of flux. Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services (KDADS) Interim Secretary Tim Keck recently announced that a request for proposal (RFP) for privatization of the operation of OSH has been put into effect. The RFP entails several specifications and could allow for a partial privatization of the hospital or a full bid for the entire operation. The RFP states that the state may award one contract to assume responsibility for providing at least 206 inpatient beds within the state of Kansas, but a minimum of only 94 inpatient beds would be required to be maintained at the current Osawatomie State Hospital campus. The remaining beds could be maintained at the OSH campus or at another KDADS-approved facility within the state hospital’s 45-county catchment area. Despite the RFP, Keck said it in no way means that privatization is a certainty in OSH’s future. He said he believes it is worthwhile to consider all the options even those that may not come to fruition. The RFP can be rescinded at any time for any reason at the state’s discretion. … Jones went on to say that he does not agree with an RFP that plans to move beds away from OSH and not increase functions there. He said the RFP seems to allow for a move of beds away from the state hospital as an option, which he does not favor. … It’s his belief that the legislators need to push back and make sure the RFP does not make it through the legislature. …

]]>40064Privatization could save some money at API, not at youth centershttp://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/2017/02/should-alaska-psychiatric-institute-be-privatized.htm
Tue, 07 Feb 2017 19:25:33 +0000http://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/?p=39199Source: Andrew Kitchenman, APRN, February 6, 2017 Consultants who studied the privatization for the state found that management of the institute, as well as operating the state’s juvenile justice detention centers, are better done by the state. Coy Jones is the senior consultant for Public Consulting Group and said savings depend on how many patients […]

Consultants who studied the privatization for the state found that management of the institute, as well as operating the state’s juvenile justice detention centers, are better done by the state. Coy Jones is the senior consultant for Public Consulting Group and said savings depend on how many patients are at the psychiatric institute. … The state also couldn’t find savings in privatizing pharmacy services at Pioneer Homes. The state studied privatizing services as a result of a new law that overhauled Medicaid in Alaska. The Senate Health and Social Services Committee held a hearing on the studies Monday.

Alaska would not benefit by using contractors to run its juvenile jails or the Alaska Psychiatric Institute, according to a pair of Legislature-ordered reports on privatization written by consultants. The feasibility studies were mandated as part of a health care bill passed by the Alaska Legislature in 2016. With Alaska facing a $3.2 billion budget crisis, the privatization studies were supposed to examine whether the state could hand over management of its only psychiatric hospital and its short-term juvenile jails to private groups and save money without threatening the quality of services. The answer for juvenile jails was an unqualified “no.” Rather than corporate prison companies like Geo Group, which the Department of Corrections uses to run halfway houses around the state, the state seemed to be looking for a different approach for running detention centers where arrested teenagers are held short-term. … Alaska’s Department of Corrections already leans on the world’s largest private prison company, Geo Group, to manage all but one of its halfway houses.

… For the overburdened Alaska Psychiatric Institute, privatization might end up being more expensive than state control, the study found. Handing over management of the psychiatric hospital to a private company or a nonprofit would cost more “even after significant staff reductions,” according to a letter on the study’s findings sent by Davidson to legislators. It would be better, the evaluators found, if the state continued to manage the hospital that is supposed to serve as Alaska’s safety net for mentally ill people.

Members of the mental health community and general public had a chance on Thursday to voice concerns and ask questions about the possibility of the state-run Alaska Psychiatric Institute becoming a private entity. A Boston-based company called Public Consulting Group Inc., is conducting a feasibility study to identify and analyze potential options for how to best manage API. … The Legislature passed a broad health care bill this year that mandates the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services, in partnership with the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority, look at whether a private contractor for API works for the state. The feasibility study will examine several options for what to do with the facility, including keeping it under state ownership and contracting out for some operations; forming a public corporation to operate API; keep it under state ownership but look for new sources of revenue; and contracting with a nonprofit or for-profit third party to take over management and operations. … A private operator of API would be subject to a state oversight committee, according to the DHSS. … The plan is to have the API feasibility study ready for the Legislature to review in January. …

The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services and the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority are hosting a roundtable discussions about privatizing the Alaska Psychiatric Institute, Alaska’s only public psychiatric hospital. A study about privatizing the hospital is a mandate of Senate Bill 74, signed into law by Gov. Bill Walker earlier this year. The Public Consulting Group, Inc., won the contract for the feasibility study on June 11 to identify and analyze potential options for privatizing the hospital. …

Alaska’s sweeping Medicaid reform bill, signed into law last month by Gov. Bill Walker, included provisions that require the state to hire outside contractors to perform feasibility studies for privatizing some parts of the state’s health care system. Specifically, the law mandates an analysis of the privatization of certain pharmacy services, juvenile facilities, and the Alaska Psychiatric Institute. So far the state has received two winning bids from firms that will perform feasibility analyses for the privatization of juvenile facilities and the state’s only public psychiatric hospital. … Carter Goble Associates, LLC, (CGA) submitted the winning bid to examine the feasibility of privatizing the programs offered in the Department of Juvenile Justice’s short-term secure detention facilities for youthful offenders. CGA’s winning proposal can be read here. … Public Consulting Group, Inc. (PCG) submitted the winning bid to conduct a feasibility analysis for privatizing certain aspects of the Alaska Psychiatric Institute, which the proposal notes “serves as the sole safety net for the entire state.” PCG’s winning proposal can be read here. …

The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services on Wednesday put out requests for proposals for studies that would examine privatization of services at the Alaska Psychiatric Institute, four Division of Juvenile Justice facilities across the state, and the pharmacy program at Alaska Pioneer Homes. … For API, some of the options include contracting a for-profit or nonprofit entity to take over management and operations; forming a public corporation to operate the hospital; keep it under state ownership and look for new revenue streams; or keep it under state ownership and contract out for certain services. … The state is also looking at potential options to privatize four short-term juvenile detention facilities in Nome, Ketchikan, Kenai and Palmer. The state is asking whoever performs the feasibility study also analyze the possibility of converting one or more of the facilities to offer nonsecure residential mental health and/or substance abuse treatment services. … Alaska Pioneer Homes, which provide assisted living care and pharmaceutical services to people 65 and older, is a state-run program that is “serving a greater proportion of high acuity residents than in the past, as prospective residents have been staying in their own homes as long as possible,” the RFP said. … The state wants an outside contractor to look at the costs and income of the current pharmacy program, as well as the needs of the program (like pharmacist consultations, or managing medication), to find out what the best option is to privatize it.

]]>39199Rep. Kevin McCarthy locks the door on California Medicare activistshttp://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/2017/01/brown-vows-to-fight-to-protect-medicare-from-privatization-attempts-that-would-hurt-millions-of-ohio-seniors.htm
Tue, 31 Jan 2017 19:57:40 +0000http://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/?p=40115Source: Vergil Lewis, People’s World, January 30, 2017 Nearly 1,000 people from all over the state of California descended on the Bakersfield office of House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy Friday to demand that he drop plans to privatize Medicare and Medicaid and instead “protect, improve, and expand” these programs that are so vital to people […]

Nearly 1,000 people from all over the state of California descended on the Bakersfield office of House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy Friday to demand that he drop plans to privatize Medicare and Medicaid and instead “protect, improve, and expand” these programs that are so vital to people in his district and across the country. … Speakers at the rally included healthcare workers, patients, teachers, and representatives of several unions, including the California Nurses Association, United Domestic Workers, and United Farm Workers. Latinos were especially well represented, including patients and workers from the Clínica Monseñor Oscar Romero. … Surgical nurse Sandy Reding of the California Nurses Association reported often seeing patients who require surgery because they had to choose between putting food on the table and paying for medications or seeing a doctor. Editha Adams of United Domestic Workers (UDW), a union representing 98,000 home care workers in the state, noted that 61 percent of home care funding for seniors or others needing it comes from Medicare and Medicaid, so that any move that restricts funding or access to these programs directly threatens their clients who cannot manage without the services they provide. …

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) today vowed to protect Medicare from privatization attempts that would erode the care Medicare provides to more than two million Ohio seniors. … “Congressman Tom Price – who has been nominated as HHS Secretary – has supported Speaker Paul Ryan’s privatization plan that would yank care away from Ohio seniors and our most vulnerable, and replace it with meaningless vouchers that will take money out of the pockets of Ohio seniors and hand it over to Wall Street,” said Brown. “This is also the same crowd that has tried to raise the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 67. Folks like Tom Price and Donald Trump who wear suits and work in this town might be able to work until 67, but tell that to waitresses and nurses and steelworkers who work on their feet all day.” Brown also stressed the need to protect Social Security from privatization. “Soon I will be introducing a bill that will protect and expand Social Security – because we know when this crowd goes after Medicare, Social Security can’t be far behind,” said Brown. …

In an interview with me, House Dem leader Nancy Pelosi argued that history might repeat itself, if House Speaker Paul Ryan — with Donald Trump’s blessing — makes good on his hints to press forward with his plans to privatize Medicare. Pelosi vowed that Democrats would remain united in the battle to stop Ryan’s plan, a goal she described as crucial to defeating it, just as unity enabled Dems to block Bush’s Social Security plan. … In that 2005 fight, Pelosi recalled, Democrats actively avoided developing an alternative plan to Bush’s. Instead, Democrats said their plan was to defend Social Security, a very popular government program. At the time, some Democratic strategists warned against uncompromising opposition. But the gamble paid off. Observers noted that Bush’s plan sank in popularity as Dems remained unified behind a refusal to budge in defense of Social Security, a move that was widely credited with helping to put Dems on track to winning back Congress in the 2006 elections. Pelosi argued that if Republicans did try to privatize Medicare, it would afford a chance to underscore “the difference between Democrats and Republicans” at a time when Democrats are trying to regain their footing after this year’s loss. “This is such a stark difference that people know we have to be unified,” Pelosi said. … Opponents of Ryan’s plan argue that, since these voucher payments would not rise as fast as health care costs, it would merely save money by forcing seniors to pay more out of their own pockets over time. They also point out that Obamacare has already improved Medicare’s fiscal outlook. It’s unclear whether Trump will go along with Ryan’s plan — doing so would require Trump to reverse himself on his campaign promise not to touch entitlements. But Trump does not appear to care as deeply about this debate as Ryan long has, and it’s reasonable to surmise he might be willing to go along with Ryan’s plan in exchange for other things he wants. …

Bursting with the policymaking power that control of both houses of Congress and the White House gives Republicans, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) has lost no time in teeing up a favorite goal: gutting Medicare. In an interview with Fox News Channel last Thursday, Ryan said: “Obamacare rewrote Medicare … so if you’re going to repeal and replace Obamacare, you have to address those issues as well. … What people don’t realize is that Medicare is going broke, that Medicare is going to have price controls. … There’s no secret about what specifically Ryan has in mind. He intends to replace traditional Medicare, an efficient program offering guaranteed treatment and featuring rock-bottom administrative costs, with a privatized program. Seniors would get a federal voucher to help them pay premiums charged by commercial insurance plans. Ryan calls this system “premium support.” … Ryan’s plan would do nothing to rein in healthcare costs, but would likely increase them, in part because Medicare beneficiaries would be saddled with paying not only for their care, but for the shareholder dividends and executive pay of private insurance companies. The savings Ryan touts would be illusory: They would merely be shifted from government to seniors. … Medicare faces fiscal problems, but it’s not going broke, and according to both the Medicare trustees and the Congressional Budget Office, the Affordable Care Act has in fact alleviated those problems rather than caused them. The trustees reported in 2010 that passage of Obamacare had postponed the projected exhaustion date of the Medicare trust fund by 12 years — to 2029 from 2017. Projections of Medicare spending growth have consistently come down, year after year, at least in part due to changes in the program imposed through Obamacare. The program’s fiscal situation would be “substantially improved,” the trustees said, because the ACA instituted new cost controls and provided new tax revenues for the program. Both those features would disappear if the GOP repeals the ACA, as is its intention. …

]]>40115Republican States Look to Customize Medicaid Expansion, Not Eliminate Ithttp://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/2017/01/republican-states-look-to-customize-medicaid-expansion-not-eliminate-it.htm
Mon, 23 Jan 2017 21:23:23 +0000http://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/?p=40358Source: Christine Vestal, Stateline, January 23, 2017 … As Congress prepares to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, 14 other states with GOP governors that opted to expand Medicaid under the law may face the same reality Bevin and Hutchinson did: Taking health insurance away from hundreds of thousands of people is a complicated […]

… As Congress prepares to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, 14 other states with GOP governors that opted to expand Medicaid under the law may face the same reality Bevin and Hutchinson did: Taking health insurance away from hundreds of thousands of people is a complicated and risky proposition. Medicaid spending for all states was about $532 billion in 2015, with about 63 percent funded by the federal government and the rest by states. In expanding Medicaid under the ACA, Republicans in expansion states chose economics over politics, even though it meant cooperating with a law that nearly all conservatives abhor. That calculus won’t change with the transition in Washington, according to Matt Salo, who heads the National Association of Medicaid Directors.

… In upcoming legislative sessions, many GOP-dominated states are likely to preserve expansion while adding so-called personal responsibility policies that have been proposed in Kentucky and adopted in Arkansas and five other states. Those policies include monthly premiums, copays and work requirements for low-income beneficiaries. … Under the Obama administration, Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Montana and New Hampshire received federal approval to expand their low-income health care programs for adults under different rules than traditional Medicaid. Arkansas, with its so-called private option, was the first state to receive federal approval for an alternative expansion plan in 2013. Instead of enrolling newly eligible adults in its traditional Medicaid plan, which serves primarily children, pregnant women and the elderly and disabled, the plan for low-income adults substituted private insurance for traditional Medicaid. A bipartisan collaboration between former Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe and the state’s Republican-dominated Legislature, the plan has managed to come in under budgeted costs while covering far more people than originally projected, said Amy Webb, a spokeswoman for the state’s human services agency. After it was approved, Iowa and New Hampshire proposed similar plans. … If the Medicaid expansion remains intact, Kentucky could be the first state to get approval for an alternative plan under the Trump administration. With enough latitude, even holdouts such as Florida, Texas and Virginia might be persuaded to accept federal money to cover low-income adults.

]]>40358Nonprofits: More privatization can save state $1.3 billionhttp://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/2017/01/nonprofits-more-privatization-can-save-state-1-3-billion.htm
Wed, 18 Jan 2017 22:05:28 +0000http://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/?p=40342Source: Susan Haigh, Associated Press, January 18, 2017 Nonprofit human services providers say they can help solve Connecticut’s budget problems by taking over more state-operated programs, an idea that appears to be gaining steam among some legislative Democrats as well as Republicans. The Connecticut Community Nonprofit Alliance on Wednesday unveiled a proposal to shift developmental […]

Nonprofit human services providers say they can help solve Connecticut’s budget problems by taking over more state-operated programs, an idea that appears to be gaining steam among some legislative Democrats as well as Republicans. The Connecticut Community Nonprofit Alliance on Wednesday unveiled a proposal to shift developmental disability residential services and mental health and substance abuse treatment programs from the state to the private sector. The group says its plan would save $1.3 billion over three years. The proposal comes as Connecticut faces a projected $1.5 billion deficit in the fiscal year beginning July 1. Connecticut has a system where both state employees and private nonprofit providers deliver state services. While many Republicans have pushed to privatize those programs, more Democrats, including Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, support the idea.

]]>40342Nebraska Modifies Its Privatized Medicaid; Iowa’s Called “A Disaster”http://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/2017/01/nebraska-modifies-its-privatized-medicaid-iowas-called-a-disaster.htm
Thu, 05 Jan 2017 16:34:19 +0000http://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/?p=40273Source: Deborah Newcombe, Omaha Public Radio, January 4, 2017 Effective January 1st, Nebraska has made modifications in the administration of its Medicaid program by private insurance companies. All Nebraska Medicaid recipients who did not pick one of the available plans by December 1st were automatically enrolled in one. Molly McCleery, Staff Attorney for the […]

Effective January 1st, Nebraska has made modifications in the administration of its Medicaid program by private insurance companies. All Nebraska Medicaid recipients who did not pick one of the available plans by December 1st were automatically enrolled in one. Molly McCleery, Staff Attorney for the Health Care Access Program at Nebraska Appleseed, stresses that recipients who are not happy with their plan have 90 days to change. … A recent Des Moines Register editorial calls Iowa’s privately managed Medicaid program, now less than nine months old, “a disaster.” Claiming Iowa’s Medicaid costs had been among the lowest in the country, it says the state recently agreed to pay $127 million more than anticipated in state and federal funds – while recipients complain of being denied services and providers of not being reimbursed. McCleery says with profit margin a factor, a similar scenario could play out in Nebraska. …

]]>40273Chicago nursing home fined after residents overdose on heroinhttp://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/2016/11/chicago-nursing-home-fined-after-residents-overdose-on-heroin.htm
Tue, 15 Nov 2016 21:24:56 +0000http://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/?p=40003Source: David Jackson and Gary Marx, Chicago Tribune, November 14, 2016 State and federal health officials are seeking penalties totaling more than $100,000 from a North Side nursing home after five residents overdosed on heroin inside the facility in February, the Tribune has learned. The residents of Continental Nursing & Rehabilitation Center were hospitalized and […]

State and federal health officials are seeking penalties totaling more than $100,000 from a North Side nursing home after five residents overdosed on heroin inside the facility in February, the Tribune has learned. The residents of Continental Nursing & Rehabilitation Center were hospitalized and recovered, but at least two used heroin again hours after they were returned to the facility, even though they were supposed to be on close watch, Illinois public health department inspectors allege. One of the two overdosed again. … Illinois law requires nursing homes to notify the Department of Public Health of unusual events that put patients at risk, but state officials said they learned of that case only when the Tribune filed a query about it. The federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, or CMS, has imposed civil monetary penalties totaling $76,000 for alleged violations in the February incident. Continental is contesting an additional $25,000 fine from the state public health department, which says the facility failed to properly monitor and treat residents with drug addictions. … Continental, which has housed a mix of older residents and younger adults with mental illness, did not admit deficiencies when it outlined corrective actions it would take — plans that were accepted by CMS in April. “The facility has ceased admitting any residents with active substance use,” its plan said. In a brief interview with the Tribune, Continental part-owner Moishe Gubin said he was not aware of any heroin overdoses or other problems at the facility. … Continental is part of a rapidly growing, South Bend, Ind.-based nursing home operation that includes more than 50 facilities in eight states, records show. Their 13 northern Illinois facilities include one that earned a top, five-star rating for overall quality from CMS. Four others, including Continental, were given a one-star quality rating, the lowest possible, and police and public health inspection records have alleged unsanitary conditions and negligent care at Continental and some other northern Illinois homes. Medicaid and Medicare last year paid those 13 facilities a total of roughly $150 million, and the facilities reported a combined 2015 profit of $6 million, according to cost reports filed with the state. Similar data was not available for a recently added 14th northern Illinois facility. …

]]>40003Pay For Success And Population Health: Early Results From Eleven Projects Reveal Challenges And Promisehttp://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/2016/11/pay-for-success-and-population-health-early-results-from-eleven-projects-reveal-challenges-and-promise.htm
Tue, 15 Nov 2016 21:19:17 +0000http://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/?p=40001Source: Paula M. Lantz, Sara Rosenbaum, Leighton Ku and Samantha Iovan, Health Affairs, November 2016 Abstract: Pay for success (PFS) is a type of social impact investing that uses private capital to finance proven prevention programs that help a government reduce public expenditures or achieve greater value. We conducted an analysis of the first eleven […]

Abstract:
Pay for success (PFS) is a type of social impact investing that uses private capital to finance proven prevention programs that help a government reduce public expenditures or achieve greater value. We conducted an analysis of the first eleven PFS projects in the United States to investigate the potential of PFS as a strategy for financing and disseminating interventions aimed at improving population health and health equity. The PFS approach has significant potential for bringing private-sector resources to interventions regarding social determinants of health. Nonetheless, a number of challenges remain, including structuring PFS initiatives so that optimal prevention benefits can be achieved and ensuring that PFS interventions and evaluation designs are based on rigorous research principles. In addition, increased policy attention regarding key PFS payout issues is needed, including the “wrong pockets” problem and legal barriers to using federal Medicaid funds as an investor payout source.

]]>40001A manager hired to help developmentally disabled people misappropriates more than $58,000http://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/2016/11/a-manager-hired-to-help-developmentally-disabled-people-misappropriates-more-than-58000.htm
Tue, 15 Nov 2016 21:17:03 +0000http://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/?p=39999Source: Audit Connection Washington, August 22, 2016 The Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) oversees supported living agencies, which provide services to individuals with developmental disabilities. A house manager runs the daily operations of the supported living home such as purchasing food, completing payroll, and paying bills. Last year, Friendship House in Enumclaw fired […]

The Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) oversees supported living agencies, which provide services to individuals with developmental disabilities. A house manager runs the daily operations of the supported living home such as purchasing food, completing payroll, and paying bills. Last year, Friendship House in Enumclaw fired the house manager for paying bills late and keeping poor records. Once the house manager was fired, other staff took over the Friendship House’s finances. After reviewing the records, they quickly became suspicious and called the local police department. A detective found the former manager wrote more than 200 checks to herself totaling $58,856. … A member of the Board of Directors for the house informed the detective that he got “into a bad practice” of signing blank checks for the manager, trusting that she would use the money for its intended purpose.

]]>39999Emanuel’s privatizing mental health clinic in Roseland raises concernshttp://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/2016/11/emanuels-privatizing-mental-health-clinic-in-roseland-raises-concerns.htm
Wed, 09 Nov 2016 16:27:37 +0000http://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/?p=39974Source: Curtis Black, Chicago Reporter, November 3, 2016 When Mayor Rahm Emanuel closed six of the city’s 12 mental health clinics four years ago, the decision sparked sustained protest. With his announcement last month that the city’s Roseland clinic will be privatized, it looks like the mayor has decided it is now safe to go […]

When Mayor Rahm Emanuel closed six of the city’s 12 mental health clinics four years ago, the decision sparked sustained protest. With his announcement last month that the city’s Roseland clinic will be privatized, it looks like the mayor has decided it is now safe to go after the remaining clinics. This move should not happen without public discussion, according to the Mental Health Movement, a coalition of clinic clients, grassroots groups and unions, has called for hearings on the Roseland clinic’s fate. The Health Movement initially withheld judgment when the city announced on Oct. 7 that the Cook County Health and Hospital System would take over management of mental health services at the Roseland Neighborhood Health Center, one of the remaining Chicago Department of Public Health clinics. In fact, the county seems to have a stronger commitment than the city to providing public health services, an organizer said. … Activists are concerned because last year, C4 announced that it was closing its doors due to billing problems, sending its 10,000 patients elsewhere. A few weeks later, C4 announced it was joining CountyCare and would stay open. … The city describes C4’s takeover as an “increase [in] service options,” since the nonprofit would extend mental health services to children. Again, Carter points out that activists have long called on the city to expand services. …

]]>39974Florida’s Medicaid privatization raises costs, not qualityhttp://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/2016/11/floridas-medicaid-privatization-raises-costs-not-quality.htm
Thu, 03 Nov 2016 18:57:09 +0000http://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/?p=39951Source: F. Douglas Stephenson, Social Justice Solutions, November 3, 2016 You might think that we learned the lesson of discredited managed care in the 1990s. The term “managed care” is confusing to many, but really amounts to managed reimbursement rather than managed care. A set prospective annual payment is made by federal/state governments, as in […]

You might think that we learned the lesson of discredited managed care in the 1990s. The term “managed care” is confusing to many, but really amounts to managed reimbursement rather than managed care. A set prospective annual payment is made by federal/state governments, as in the case of Florida Medicaid managed care, to cover whatever services patients will receive over the coming year. There is therefore a built-in incentive for managed care organizations to skimp on care and pocket more profits. The same problem is back in Florida in the form of privatized Medicaid managed care, facilitated further by the Affordable Care Act. More than one-half of Medicaid beneficiaries are now in privatized plans, which have been catching on in Florida and many states based on the unproven theory that private plans can enable access to better coordinated care and still save money. That theory is not just unproven, it is patently wrong as the state forecasters are now discovering. Medicaid will eat up 45.9 percent of growth in general revenue over the next three years, ballooned by approval of a 7.7 percent increase in payment to private managed care plans. …

In less than a year, Florida’s switch to privately managed healthcare for more than 3 million poor, disabled and elderly residents has achieved one of its primary goals: cutting costs for Medicaid, the public health insurance program for low-income people that accounted for roughly one-fifth or about $9.5 billion of state spending last year. But the savings may be short lived after the private companies that took over insuring Florida’s Medicaid patients asked for a mid-year raise of nearly $400 million, and a 12 percent rate increase starting Sept. 1. That has state health officials, including Elizabeth Dudek, head of the Agency for Health Care Administration, worried that “the vast majority” of Medicaid savings from the first year could be wiped out if Florida gives in to the insurers’ demands.

The Obama administration Monday gave Florida permission to transfer part of its Medicaid program to private health-care companies beginning this summer.

The state will enroll 87,000 Medicaid patients — low-income seniors needing long-term care – in one of five health-care plans that were selected last month to cover patients living in 11 districts around the state. The companies include American Eldercare, Sunshine State Health Plan, United HealthCare of Florida, Coventry Health Care of Florida and Amerigroup Florida.

In 2011, the Legislature approved a shift from fee-for-service to managed care for most of its 3.3 million Medicaid population, in hopes of curbing soaring costs of the $22-billion program. But the shift requires a “waiver” from the U.S. Health and Human Services Administration, which pays about 58 percent of the program’s total cost.continue reading

]]>39951$135M boost going to LSU hospital managers under new dealshttp://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/2016/10/135m-boost-going-to-lsu-hospital-managers-under-new-deals.htm
Fri, 28 Oct 2016 15:57:08 +0000http://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/?p=39901Source: Melinda Deslatte, Associated Press, October 27, 2016 The private operators of LSU’s charity hospitals and clinics are in line for a $135 million boost in their payments as part of new deals struck by Gov. John Bel Edwards’ administration, and the university’s medical schools will benefit from some of the new money. State lawmakers […]

The private operators of LSU’s charity hospitals and clinics are in line for a $135 million boost in their payments as part of new deals struck by Gov. John Bel Edwards’ administration, and the university’s medical schools will benefit from some of the new money. State lawmakers are being asked Friday to increase financing for the privatization deals to nearly $1.3 billion in the current budget year, only four months after lawmakers were told the previous level of funding was sufficient. … The money for the hospital and clinic operators is part of a larger budget adjustment requested by the Louisiana Department of Health at Friday’s meeting of the joint House and Senate budget committee. Jeff Reynolds, chief financial officer for the health department, said $135 million is a financing increase for the private managers that have taken over LSU’s hospitals, clinics and patient services. He said the additional payments are part of the renegotiated deals recently worked out by the Edwards administration. … The renegotiated privatization deals crafted by the Edwards administration included provisions in which some of the hospitals will be paying more money for the services of LSU’s doctors who work at the hospitals. … Henry said he wanted to know why the dollars weren’t available when lawmakers were crafting the budget in June, when they were told the previous level of agreed-upon financing was sufficient for the privatization agreements. …

Gov. John Bel Edwards’ administration will make its offer Thursday to the operator of LSU’s hospitals in Shreveport and Monroe for a renegotiated contract with the state, as the governor pushes to rewrite all the LSU hospital privatization deals. Edwards’ lead negotiator on the contracts, Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne, said Thursday’s presentation to the Biomedical Research Foundation of Northwest Louisiana is the last offer to be made. … Dardenne wouldn’t provide details about what changes are being sought in the north Louisiana hospitals’ deal — or any others. But he said negotiations are over and hospital operators can either take or leave the reworked arrangements offered. … Former Gov. Bobby Jindal privatized nine LSU-run hospitals and their clinics through no-bid contracts, with the earliest deal starting in April 2013. In most instances, the management company of a nearby hospital took over operations. Three contracts closed an LSU hospital — in Baton Rouge, Lake Charles and Pineville — and shifted its services to private hospitals. The Edwards administration says the deals were too hastily slapped together, with terms that aren’t favorable to the state. … LSU System President F. King Alexander described the arrangement to have the foundation, known as BRF, run the Monroe and Shreveport hospitals as dysfunctional from its start in October 2013. Alexander said the research foundation, which runs the two hospitals as the University Health System, doesn’t have the resources or experience, isn’t paying bills on time and isn’t providing enough support to the LSU medical school in Shreveport. BRF and University Health leaders say Alexander’s accusations are untrue and LSU’s Shreveport medical school has financial problems of its own making. They say the research foundation’s hospital management has improved health care. …

A new audit says former Gov. Bobby Jindal’s privatization of claims processing and loss prevention services for Louisiana’s self-insurance program saved the state money, though less than projected. The Jindal administration privatized the Office of Risk Management work in June 2010, awarding the $75 million contract to Mandeville-based F.A. Richard and Associates Inc., or FARA. In a review released Monday, the Legislative Auditor’s Office said FARA — which held the privatization deal through June 2015 — saved the state $9.8 million over five years, rather than the $22 million projected by the Jindal administration. …

Three years after Bobby Jindal’s administration began privatizing nearly all the LSU-run charity hospitals, Louisiana leaders are still sorting through the consequences of the deals struck by the Republican former governor. Costs for the hospitals, their clinics and the safety net services have grown despite Jindal’s claims the contracts would save Louisiana money. Hospital operators are threatening to walk away because of state budget cuts. And the medical schools are grappling with the spill-out effects on their budgets and the widespread implications on graduate medical education. … Jindal privatized nine LSU-run hospitals and their clinics through no-bid contracts, with the earliest deal starting in April 2013. In most instances, the management company of a nearby hospital took over operations. Three contracts closed an LSU hospital — in Baton Rouge, Lake Charles and Pineville — and shifted its services to private hospitals. … Meanwhile, the LSU medical schools in New Orleans and Shreveport are trying to keep from getting stuck with millions in annual costs tied to the privatization deals. While they took over the services, the managers of the LSU hospitals and clinics didn’t take on the liabilities associated with former and retired hospital employees, like termination pay, retiree health insurance and workers compensation expenses. Millions of those “legacy costs” are expected for years, and LSU’s health sciences centers have been saddled with many of those payments. …

Louisiana’s public university leaders raised the specter of privatization as they brace for another round of budget cuts in the next academic year. … A few higher education leaders brought up privatization as an option in the face of dramatic funding reductions. They said many of the mandates from the state — retirement costs and other benefits — were crushing their budgets. … The state mandates actually cost the Health Sciences Center about $900,000 more than the school received in state funding this year, according to Hollier. He pointed to the recent, controversial privatization of Oregon Health & Science University as a model that should be explored for his institution in Louisiana. LSU president King Alexander backed up Hollier’s comments. He said it is getting hard to consider LSU, in general, a public institution when most of the funding is now coming from tuition and private resources.continue reading

]]>39901California counties look to private firm to run new state psychiatric hospitalhttp://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/2016/10/california-counties-look-to-private-firm-to-run-new-state-psychiatric-hospital.htm
Thu, 27 Oct 2016 15:35:40 +0000http://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/?p=39879Source: Annie Gilbertson, SCPR, October 27, 2016 A statewide consortium of county mental health officials is planning to create California’s first privately-run state mental health hospital. It says it’s the fastest way to address the persistent shortage of beds for the state’s most dangerously and severely mentally ill. But critics of prison privatization worry care […]

A statewide consortium of county mental health officials is planning to create California’s first privately-run state mental health hospital. It says it’s the fastest way to address the persistent shortage of beds for the state’s most dangerously and severely mentally ill. But critics of prison privatization worry care will worsen, pointing to past problems with the contractor, Correct Care Recovery Solutions, a spinoff of the private prison giant GEO Group. The proposed facility would serve around 250 civilly-committed patients – those hospitalized because they’re deemed a danger to themselves or others. That would allow the current network of state hospitals to continue to house people who are charged with crimes but found mentally incompetent to stand trial or not guilty by reason of insanity. … In June, the list of people waiting to get in reached a five-year high of 700. On average, patients found incompetent to stand trial waited two months to get a hospital bed, but some can wait several months. Many are waiting in county jails, predominately in Los Angeles County, where they are entitled to basic mental health care, but long-term psychiatric treatment can be delayed. Civilly-committed patients are housed in local psychiatric hospitals, which can charge between $600 to $1,300 a day in Los Angeles County. … Graziani points to South Florida State Hospital as an example. The facility was one of the first state mental health hospitals in the U.S. to be privatized. It was managed by a division of GEO Group until 2014, when Correct Care Solutions bought the unit. In 2011, Florida’s Department of Children and Families, which oversees adult protective services, launched an investigation into the facility after three patient deaths that year. In one case, a heavily-medicated man was found dead in a bathtub. The water was so hot, staff reported, the patient’s skin sloughed off his body. Florida investigators determined Correct Care staff was fixing the problems, yet adult protective services continued to find abuse and neglect at the hospital. Between 2011 and 2015, investigators verified 19 claims that staff abused, neglected or poorly supervised those in their care, records show. …

]]>39879Cedar Haven employees approve contracthttp://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/2016/10/cedar-haven-employees-approve-contract.htm
Mon, 24 Oct 2016 16:37:53 +0000http://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/?p=39846Source: John Latimer, Lebanon Daily News, October 20, 2016 Employees at Cedar Haven nursing home have approved a new contract, avoiding a threatened strike. The employees represented by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees District 89 ratified the contract on Monday by a narrow margin, according to a union representative. Terms of the […]

Employees at Cedar Haven nursing home have approved a new contract, avoiding a threatened strike. The employees represented by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees District 89 ratified the contract on Monday by a narrow margin, according to a union representative. Terms of the one-year deal were not released. … The union, representing about 300 employees, has been working without a contract since Oct. 1 and had threatened to strike on Oct. 15 after rejecting a previous contract offer from Cedar Haven owner, Chas Blalack of Stone Barn Holdings. That contract offer eliminated an employer-paid healthcare plan, replacing it with others plans with larger premiums and/or deductibles, and changed overtime and vacation policies. …

Union workers at Cedar Haven nursing home in Lebanon County averted a strike after narrowly approving a new contract Monday. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees LOCAL 2732 negotiated a 50 cent pay increase for workers who had not already received one, reduced proposed cuts to vacation time and preserved the home’s overtime provision, said Steve Mullen, Director of AFSCME District Council 89. … The current contract expired Sept. 30. Changes in health care benefits had been a point of contention in contract talks, said the union. The facility employs about 300 full- and part-time staff, and has about 325 residents. …

The owner of Cedar Haven has responded to a strike threat issued this week by the union representing 300 full- and part-time employees of the South Lebanon Township nursing home. On Thursday, American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees Local 2732 announced that its members, including many licensed practical nurses and certified nursing assistants, had rejected a final contract offer and would walk off the job at 7 a.m. Oct. 15. The union’s representative, Steve Mullen said the contract offered by Cedar Haven’s owner, Stone Barn Holdings, gave a quarter an hour raise but eliminated some benefits, including a fully-funded employee health care plan, which would cost employees about $5,000 to replace. On Friday, Chas Blalack, a principal owner of Stone Barn Holdings, which purchased Cedar Haven from Lebanon County in 2014, shared a letter with the Lebanon Daily News that was sent to all employees. … The letter, which can be read in its entirety at cedarhaven.healthcare/letter-to-all-employees/, explains that the county sold the nursing home because it was operating at a loss, and it continues to do so. … The letter goes on to explain that during the course of negotiations over the past several months, the union was informed of the challenges facing the nursing home, including rising overtime and health care costs, and necessary capital improvements. It also points out that while contract negotiations were underway in June, many employees received significant raises that increased payroll expenses by $1 million. … The letter produced a predictably harsh response from union representative Mullen, who had a different interpretation of why some staff received raises this summer. “This was not given out of the kindness of their hearts,” he said in an email. “The facility was short staffed and could not hire employees because of low pay. This resulted in high overtime cost for the facility since 2014.” Mullen noted that “the cuts far outweighed the pay increases he gave to the LPNs and CNAs.” …

Care givers and other employees at Cedar Haven have voted to strike over a contract dispute with the nursing home’s owner that cuts health care and other benefits. Negotiations on a new contract have been going on since mid-summer and have been described as contentious by several knowledgeable sources who wished to remain anonymous for fear of losing their jobs. According to contract documents sent to the Lebanon Daily News, the union rejected a contract offer that eliminated free health care for employees, eliminated four personal days and changed overtime, vacation and sick day rules. The health care plan with the lowest deductible would cost employees about $212 per pay period, or more than $5,500, according to the documents. … The facility’s licensed practical nurses are represented by Council 89 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which has been in negotiations with Stone Barn Holdings, a privately held Connecticut investment company, one of whose principal owners is Charles Blalack. … The county Board of Commissioners sold the skilled-care facility because it was a drain on the general fund. Annual operating deficits totaled about $2 million at the time of the sale and were compounded by rising employee pension benefit costs. Under terms of the sale, all existing employees were entitled to keep their jobs and remain represented by AFSCME, although they were no longer county employees. Many, however, retired or found new jobs elsewhere. …

Just days before the $25.5 million sale of Lebanon County’s Cedar Haven nursing home is to become final, county officials have won a state court battle with a union over the privatization of the facility’s food service. Commonwealth Court upheld that dietary department privatization in a decision issued Tuesday. The state court turned aside an appeal by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which claimed county officials breached AFSCME’s contract by unilaterally deciding to bring in an outside firm to run Cedar Haven’s food service in 2012. Numerous union members lost their jobs when Culinary Services Group took over Cedar Haven’s dietary department in February 2013. CSG hired about half of the nursing home’s county-employed dietary staff. County officials said the food service privatization would save about $500,000 a year, largely through wage and benefit reductions compared to what the county had paid its workers….The state judges took on the matter even though county officials argued that the pending sale of Cedar Haven – scheduled for completion on Sept. 30 – had rendered the dispute over the food service privatization moot. County commissioners voted in June to sell the 324-bed home to Complete HealthCare Resources of Montgomery County….

The union representing employees of Cedar Haven has negotiated a contract with the incoming owners of the nursing home, but not everyone is thrilled with the results. After two days of negotiations on Aug. 5 and 6, representatives of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees came to terms with Complete HealthCare Resources on a two-year contract that will give employees annual 2 percent pay increases. The contract will automatically renew in subsequent years unless one side calls for renegotiating the deal….

The union representing about 40 Cedar Haven kitchen workers has filed a labor grievance with the county for privatizing dietary services at the South Lebanon Township nursing home. Mike Fox, director of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 89, said the county’s decision to hire Maryland-based Culinary Services Group to provide meals at Cedar Haven violated the employees’ contract….

…Fox questioned that amount because, he said, it referred to the base-contract figure of $2.26 million per year, which does not include additional charges for things like specialty meals provided to patients for medical reasons and meals for guests. When those expenses are added in, Fox said, the bottom line might be closer to the $3 million figure it cost the county to provide dietary services at the nursing home….Fox also took issue with the county for hiring CSG without a competitive bidding process and without informing the existing employees, who might have been willing to make concessions to save their jobs….

]]>39846Nursing home operator from Chicago jailed as feds allege $1 billion schemehttp://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/2016/10/nursing-home-operator-from-chicago-jailed-as-feds-allege-1-billion-scheme.htm
Fri, 07 Oct 2016 15:22:46 +0000http://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/?p=39702Source: David Jackson and Gary Max, Chicago Tribune, October 4, 2016 For years, wealthy nursing home operator Philip Esformes seemed to live in perpetual motion, using private jets to travel between his Water Tower Place condominium and his mansions in Miami and Los Angeles. Now federal authorities are applying extraordinary court pressure to keep Esformes […]

For years, wealthy nursing home operator Philip Esformes seemed to live in perpetual motion, using private jets to travel between his Water Tower Place condominium and his mansions in Miami and Los Angeles. Now federal authorities are applying extraordinary court pressure to keep Esformes locked in a Florida detention cell where he awaits trial for allegedly orchestrating an unprecedented $1 billion Medicaid and Medicare bribery and kickback scheme … His confinement in the Miami Federal Detention Center marks a new challenge for a business family that has withstood two decades of Justice Department probes and Tribune investigations into allegations of patient abuse, corruption and substandard conditions at their Illinois, Florida and Missouri nursing home facilities. From their Lincolnwood offices, Esformes and his father and business partner, Morris Esformes, took in millions of dollars annually from federal programs for the sick and disabled. … The Esformeses sold their Illinois nursing facilities about four years ago but kept their headquarters in the Chicago suburbs as they continued to operate 20 or so homes in Florida, government records and Tribune interviews show. The new federal indictment alleges that Philip Esformes and a handful of Miami co-conspirators bilked Medicaid and Medicare for 14 years by cycling some 14,000 patients through various Esformes facilities, where many received unnecessary or even harmful treatments. Drug addicts were allegedly lured to the facilities with promises of narcotics, and prosecutors say some received OxyContin and fentanyl without a physician’s order to entice them to stay. In recent court filings, prosecutors have gone beyond the allegations of the indictment to reveal new claims of patient harm and corruption. …

]]>39702AFSCME President, Over 20 Lawmakers Begin State Supreme Court Case Against Branstadhttp://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/2016/09/afscme-president-over-20-lawmakers-begin-state-supreme-court-case-against-branstad.htm
Thu, 15 Sep 2016 15:30:58 +0000http://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/?p=39441Source: Ben Oldach, WHOtv, September 14, 2016 A State Supreme Court hearing on Wednesday could impact which state-funded programs get funded at budget time. The case pits AFSCME President Danny Homan and over 20 lawmakers against Governor Branstad. It comes from a veto issued by Gov. Branstad last July which effectively shut down two state-run […]

A State Supreme Court hearing on Wednesday could impact which state-funded programs get funded at budget time. The case pits AFSCME President Danny Homan and over 20 lawmakers against Governor Branstad. It comes from a veto issued by Gov. Branstad last July which effectively shut down two state-run mental hospitals. The heart of the prosecution’s argument came from a statute in Iowa’s code identifying four mental health hospitals; one in Mount Pleasant, Independence, Clarinda and Cherokee. …

The Iowa Supreme Court was asked Wednesday to decide if Gov. Terry Branstad violated state law last year by using his line-item veto authority to close two state mental health institutes. … The dispute dates to July 2015, when the Republican governor vetoed a bipartisan compromise plan that would have reversed his closure of the mental institution at Mount Pleasant and would have temporarily kept open a similar facility at Clarinda. Twenty-five state legislators and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees sued Branstad. They contended his veto of more than $6 million in spending broke a law requiring the state to operate four mental hospitals, including the two that he closed. They have asked the high court to overturn a Polk County District Court ruling last November by Polk County District Judge Douglas Staskal, who sided with Branstad. The Supreme Court did not issue a ruling Wednesday and the justices didn’t say when the case will be decided.

A judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed against Governor Terry Branstad by the state’s largest public employees union and 20 legislative Democrats. The lawsuit was filed after Branstad vetoed funding approved by the legislature that would have kept two of the state’s Mental Health Institutes open. … Danny Homan, president of AFSCME Council 61, said the action the governor took to close the two MHIs was illegal. But, a Polk County judge has ruled Branstad had the authority to veto financial support for such facilities and backed a request by state attorneys to throw out the lawsuit. The attorney representing AFSCME and the lawmakers plans to appeal the decision to the Iowa Supreme Court.

Lawyers for Gov. Terry Branstad and his critics argued in court Thursday over whether he broke the law by using his line item veto authority to effectively shutter two state mental hospitals. … Branstad’s lawyers earlier asked the judge to dismiss the lawsuit, saying the legislators and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees lacked grounds to sue. The judge disagreed, ruling last month that the lawsuit could proceed. However, he dismissed Department of Human Services Director Charles Palmer as a defendant, saying Palmer had no say in Branstad’s veto. There will be no trial, because the two sides agree on the facts of the case. Staskal said Thursday that he would rule on the legal questions within 30 days. Whoever loses the case then could appeal to the Iowa Supreme Court.

Gov. Terry Branstad has established a pattern of governing that ignores the existence of 150 state lawmakers. When legislators complain, lawsuits allege an abuse of power, or Iowans die after being moved from a state home he closed, the governor is already focused on his next agenda item. … Though Iowa law specifies the state shall operate mental health institutes in Mount Pleasant and Clarinda, the governor unilaterally shut down those facilities, too. At least three former residents have died while a lawsuit against Branstad makes its way through the courts. Now he is seeking to privatize Iowa’s $4 billion Medicaid program by handing over its operations to managed care companies. Without evidence this would improve the health of Iowans or details about how exactly it would save money, his administration has moved forward to transform the government health insurance program for 560,000 Iowans. It sought bids from companies and sent out a press release announcing the “winners.”

Democratic legislators and the leader of the state workers’ union have the right to sue Gov. Terry Branstad over his closure of two state mental hospitals, a judge has ruled. … The Iowa attorney general’s office, representing the governor, countered the lawsuit by contending the union leader and the legislators could not show he exceeded his authority by vetoing money that would have kept them running. The state lawyers also contended the plaintiffs didn’t have grounds to sue because they couldn’t show they were directly harmed by the hospital closures. Judge Douglas Staskal disagreed with the governor. In a ruling filed last week, the Polk County district judge ruled that Homan and the legislators have “standing” to file the lawsuit. In other words, they showed that Branstad’s action harmed them specifically. The judge wrote that Homan had the right to sue because several dozen of his union’s members worked at the hospitals.

Polk County District Court Judge Douglas Staskal ruled yesterday that a lawsuit challenging Governor Terry Branstad’s line-item vetoes of mental health facility funding can move forward. … But in a thirteen-page ruling, Judge Staskal rejected the state’s arguments that “the plaintiffs lack standing, have failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted and that the case presents a nonjusticiable political question.” He found that AFSCME Iowa Council 61 President Danny Homan has standing because he represents the interests of state workers who were laid off when the state government closed in-patient mental health facilities in Clarinda and Mount Pleasant. The judge also noted that state legislators “have standing to challenge the propriety of the Governor’s exercise of his veto authority.” Judge Staskal found plaintiffs had stated a claim: “a challenge to the Governor’s exercise of his line-item veto authority.” As for the political question, the ruling noted, “Whether to close Clarinda and Mount Pleasant is a policy matter for the other branches of government. Whether the Governor’s particular use of his line-item veto power is constitutional is a matter for the courts.”

The transition coordinator for Des Moines and Lee County Jails says that the closure of the Mount Pleasant Mental Health Institute is already putting a strain on the area’s correctional system. … In Des Moines and Lee Counties, they’ve changed the process for booking inmates in the jail to better screen for mental illness. … Kramer says that the closure of the Mount Pleasant MHI has created excess strain on the correctional system, making it more difficult to assist inmates with their mental health needs. “We’ve seen a lot of struggles with placement. Some people who would have formerly been able to get in a placement situation can’t because those beds are being taken up by former MHI patients,” Kramer explained. The MHI was closed last month after Governor Branstad opted not to approve funding for either the MHI in Mount Pleasant or the one in Clarinda.

… Since then, three patients have died after being moved from the Clarinda facility over to private care, adding attention to the issue. The Governor’s decision to close facilities was met with praise and harsh criticism, even a lawsuit. Iowa union members and some lawmakers filed a lawsuit over what they call the Governor’s ‘overreach’ of the law. … He says the facility isn’t the problem, it’s that it can house just 36 people and now it’s one of two facilities in the state after Gov. Branstad’s veto of funding for the facilities in Mount Pleasant and Clarinda. Cherokee’s facility could be expanded to house at least 12 more patients, but that would require state approval. The last time lawmakers put forward a bill that would fund mental health programs, it was vetoed. … Within weeks of closing down Clarinda, three patients died after being transferred to a new facility. Hogg says lawmakers can’t keep letting the system fail the patients. He says there needs to be a hard conversation about the mental health system in the state, and see changes made. But that starts, he says, with making sure facilities that are already helping Iowans stay open.continue reading

As federal authorities weigh the North Carolina legislature’s request to privatize Medicaid services here, a Raleigh-based nonprofit that manages 1.6 million Medicaid patients for the state said it continues delivering financial savings and improved health outcomes for patients. The nonprofit organization, Community Care of North Carolina, or CCNC, published its 2015 performance measures in the summer issue of N.C. Medical Journal, the first time that CCNC has publicized its performance in such a fashion. The Journal’s editors requested the submission for a special July/August issue dedicated to the subject of value-based care, an emerging health care trend that seeks to measure quality as it relates to the cost of providing care. … In the medical journal article, CCNC said that in 2015 the state’s Medicaid results are beating expectations. CCNC said total costs were 5 percent below an established benchmark, emergency room visits were 7 percent below, inpatient hospital admissions were 26 percent below, and hospital readmissions were 51 percent below. … Among the 1.6 million patients CCNC manages, the average cost per patient per month last year was $543. That amount has fallen every year since 2010, when the average monthly cost per patient was $597. … The state pays $3.6 billion toward Medicaid for state residents and is a huge chunk of the state’s $22 billion budget. The federal government pays the majority of North Carolina’s $15 billion Medicaid program. That money largely pays for doctors, medicine, hospitals and other related costs. Of the CCNC-managed patients, 53,875 were admitted to hospitals last year. That year there were 3,262 hospital readmissions within 30 days of the original admission, but more than 6,600 readmissions had been expected based on the 2012 performance benchmarks. …

State officials announced a multi-year draft of a plan to reform North Carolina’s Medicaid program last week, effectively moving it toward privatization. The plan has been in the works since reform legislation was approved in September by the N.C. General Assembly. The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services has helped coordinate and create the draft for the new program, which features a patient-centered approach. …

North Carolina hospitals and doctors say the state’s push to institute Medicaid managed care will reduce services for the poor and shortchange providers despite the legislation giving them the opportunity to bid on the contracts. Late last month, Republican Gov. Pat McCrory signed legislation enabling changes that will move the state’s $12.7 billion Medicaid program serving 1.9 million residents from fee-for-service payments made directly to providers to capped payments to managed care insurers. … Providers, on the other hand, wanted the state to build on the success of a medical home initiative already in place for some Medicaid beneficiaries. The Community Care of North Carolina initiative organized 14 provider-based community networks, which still use fee-for-service but are paid a monthly per-member fee to coordinate patient care. The model appears to have saved the state money, according to a report from North Carolina’s Office of the State Auditor released in August. Community Care of North Carolina saved the state $312 a year for every non-elderly Medicaid patient from 2003 to 2012, which equates to more than $400 million a year.

Rep. Nelson Dollar, a prominent member of the House Republican leadership and its top budget writer, not only opposed the plan that he correctly said would be putting stockholders ahead of N.C. citizens, he challenged the misleading claims about the current Medicaid system made by the ideologues and special interests who are intent on privatizing it. Dollar pointed out that for all the bluster about the current system being broken and out of control — two characterizations repeated incessantly by the privatizers — Medicaid claims costs have fallen in the last five years even as the program now serves 200,000 more people. Dollar said North Carolina ranks 42nd in the nation in the cost per full-time Medicaid enrollee and the cost per patient has declined in the last four years. …continue reading

]]>39321Workers at McLaren Lansing could soon see layoffs, hospital outsourcing it’s foodservicehttp://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/2016/09/workers-at-mclaren-lansing-could-soon-see-layoffs-hospital-outsourcing-its-foodservice.htm
Thu, 01 Sep 2016 17:52:06 +0000http://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/?p=39285Source: Alexandra Ilitch, WLNS, August 31, 2016 Employees who work in the Dietary Department at McLaren Hospital in Lansing could be facing layoffs as soon as October, according to a letter given to workers on Tuesday. The letter was addressed to a service representative at OPEIU Local 459 from a McLaren representative. … The letter […]

Employees who work in the Dietary Department at McLaren Hospital in Lansing could be facing layoffs as soon as October, according to a letter given to workers on Tuesday. The letter was addressed to a service representative at OPEIU Local 459 from a McLaren representative. … The letter says: the 60 day discussion period to outsource its food and nutritional service operations at the hospital has ended. Dated August 30, 2016, the letter goes on to say, employees affected by this layoff, includes cooks, dietary aides, and dietician’s assistants. Employees 6 News talked to said as many as 40 people work in the food service department, which according to them, will be taken over by Morrison Healthcare. Morrison is a food-service company that serves more than 650 hospitals and healthcare systems across the United States. …

More than 80 workers were laid off from McLaren Flint this week as part of move to outsource food and nutritional services. The 83 layoffs were revealed in May in a notice filed by McLaren with the Michigan Department of Labor. A McLaren spokeswoman said many of the workers laid off by McLaren took positions with Morrison Healthcare, which always had a part in the food service operations in the hospital, located at 401 S. Ballenger Hwy. … Prochazka said she believes the employees were offered the same positions from Morrison that they had with McLaren and added some workers took other positions within the hospital. The workers were represented by AFSCME Council 25, AFL-CIO Local 2650. …

More than 80 McLaren Flint workers may be laid off in July when the company outsources its food and nutritional service operations, according to a notice filed with the state. There are 83 employees at McLaren Flint, 401 S. Ballenger Hwy, who will be laid off beginning July 13, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notice filed with the Michigan Department of Labor. … The May 12 notice says McLaren Flint will terminate its food and nutritional service operations and Morrison Healthcare will take over the role. … All employees were able to apply to work for Morrison Healthcare, some may be permanently laid off. The workers are represented by AFSCME Council 25, AFL-CIO Local 2650. …

]]>39285VA secretary: Privatization not the answerhttp://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/2016/09/va-secretary-privatization-not-the-answer.htm
Thu, 01 Sep 2016 14:55:56 +0000http://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/?p=39282Source: Steve B. Brooks, American Legion, August 31, 2016 While some are calling for the privatization of health care for the nation’s veterans, the man leading the Department of Veterans Affairs says those calls are not motivated solely by concern for veterans. Addressing The American Legion National Convention in Cincinnati, VA Secretary Bob McDonald said […]

While some are calling for the privatization of health care for the nation’s veterans, the man leading the Department of Veterans Affairs says those calls are not motivated solely by concern for veterans. Addressing The American Legion National Convention in Cincinnati, VA Secretary Bob McDonald said such proposals aren’t driven by veterans’ best interests. … “It doesn’t serve veterans well, and it doesn’t sit well with me. So make sure there’s substance to those discussions, that they’re about veterans’ interests and not something else.” During a 24-minute speech, McDonald admitted VA still has work in front of it but said the agency has the opportunity to make 2016 the year “it turns the corner.” …McDonald pointed to changes in leadership, noting that 14 of the department’s top 17 executives are new since he was appointed in July 2014. “These are world-class, enthusiastic business leaders and health-care professionals,” he said. “Eight of them are veterans themselves.” …

President Barack Obama is opposing suggestions the government privatize the Department of Veterans Affairs to improve health care veterans receive. In an interview with the Colorado Springs Gazette, the president said his administration has made progress modernizing the VA and providing veterans with more timely health care following criticism over wait times. Privatizing the agency would delay that progress, he said. … U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colorado Springs, a member of the Veterans Affairs Committee, agreed with Obama that total privatization would be a mistake, but he said veterans need more options, including private care. To cope with the problems, Obama signed the Veterans Access to Care Act that requires the VA to contract with private providers when a clinic isn’t within 40 miles of the veteran seeking care or the wait time for care is more than 30 days.

Some members of the commission established by Congress to evaluate the Department of Veterans Health Administration have proposed drastically reducing the size of the VHA by closing its health facilities and transferring the care of the nation’s millions of military veterans to the private sector. But in a letter sent to the chair of the Commission on Care, leaders of eight of the country’s most prominent veterans’ advocacy organizations blasted the proposal. … The “Strawman” report, which echoes VA privatization efforts that have been backed by the Koch brothers, says “bold transformation” is needed for the VA to address the needs of its enrolled veterans, and that the system is “seriously broken” with “no efficient path to repair it.” The plan calls for closing many “obsolete” VA facilities and moving toward a model where veterans can seek taxpayer-funded care at private health care facilities. A process similar to the Base Realignment and Closure system—used by the military since the end of the Cold War to decide which bases to close—would be used to evaluate which VA medical facilities would close. Under the plan, there would be no new facilities or major renovations of the existing VA facilities. The plan also called for private doctors to be reimbursed at 5 to 10 percent higher than the Medicare rate, so they would have a greater incentive to participate.

]]>39282Blistering report details nursing home deathshttp://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/2016/08/blistering-report-details-nursing-home-deaths.htm
Wed, 17 Aug 2016 15:02:33 +0000http://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/?p=39074Source: Kay Lazar, Boston Globe, August 12, 2016 Braemoor Health Center nurses and aides lacked the training to revive a dementia patient suffering an apparent heart attack, and the patient died, according to a blistering state report released Thursday. The troubled Brockton nursing home then failed to report the death to the state health department […]

Braemoor Health Center nurses and aides lacked the training to revive a dementia patient suffering an apparent heart attack, and the patient died, according to a blistering state report released Thursday. The troubled Brockton nursing home then failed to report the death to the state health department because, nurses told investigators, the patient “had no family.” Braemoor’s administrator, meanwhile, told investigators the nursing home’s clinical team decided against reporting the death because of recent “bad press” about the nursing home’s parent company, Synergy Health Centers. The 70-page report into the deaths of that patient, in April, and another in March, paints a picture of a nursing home in chaos, with scant staff training in basic life-support care, machines needed to deliver life-saving oxygen standing empty, defective equipment used to restore a regular cardiac rhythm during a sudden heart attack, and missing alarms needed to protect dementia patients from wandering out of the building. … Braemoor is one of 11 Massachusetts nursing homes owned by Synergy Health Centers of New Jersey, a problem-plagued company that was slapped in April with what regulators characterized as unusually steep federal fines after two deaths at the company’s Wilmington facility, Woodbriar Health Center. …

Braemoor Health Center is a modest nursing home in Brockton, licensed to care for 120 residents. But Larry Lipschutz, who owns the property, was able to wring $1.8 million in pay out of it last year, according to state records. His son, Avi “Zisha” Lipschutz, who holds the state license to run the nursing home, extracted nearly $900,000 from Braemoor as payments to a realty company and four management firms he owns. As the owners were taking hundreds of thousands of dollars out of Braemoor, the nursing home racked up three and a half times as many health and safety problems as the state average, federal documents show. … Over the past year, a portrait has emerged of substandard care in many of the nursing homes run by Braemoor’s owner, Synergy Health Centers. Poor treatment of patients’ festering pressure sores. Medication errors. Inadequate staff training. Now, a Globe investigation shows that as father and son were paying themselves handsomely, Synergy apparently provided false information when applying for nursing home licenses. The Globe’s review also found that Synergy and its affiliated companies assembled a string of 11 nursing homes with little state scrutiny of the backgrounds of top executives, including Larry Lipschutz, who faces tens of thousands of dollars in fines because of previous business dealings. …

]]>39074County unlikely to privatize EMS, librarieshttp://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/2016/08/county-unlikely-to-privatize-ems-libraries.htm
Mon, 15 Aug 2016 15:42:44 +0000http://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/?p=39016Source: Gary Pinnell, Highlands Today, August 14, 2016 A push to transfer 10 county departments to private employers began in 2013 when Positive Mobility’s Ron Layne suggested ambulances for hire should transport non-emergency patients. Tea party members stood in front of the county commission and lobbied for months for Layne’s plan. … But the emergency […]

A push to transfer 10 county departments to private employers began in 2013 when Positive Mobility’s Ron Layne suggested ambulances for hire should transport non-emergency patients. Tea party members stood in front of the county commission and lobbied for months for Layne’s plan. … But the emergency part of the ambulance service is unlikely to be privatized, three commissioners said Tuesday. … The commissioners went a lot farther down the road to privatizing county services in a 2014 goal-setting workshop: recycling, landfill, libraries, Healthy Families, real estate surveying, fleet maintenance, asphalt production and road paving. Bids were accepted for janitorial services for county offices, but the issue was always a non-starter with constitutional officers. … Elwell pointed out in November that the county privatized tourism by replacing tourism director John Scherlacher with a contract with Gray Dog Communications. Brooks and Elwell said privatizing libraries was a non-starter. … The county continues to look at farming out Healthy Families, a home visitation program for expectant parents and parents of newborns. The program is designed to educate parents and improve childhood outcomes. An Aug. 2 note from County Administrator June Fisher to commissioners said, “holding periodic meetings with interested parties and non-profits to continue the discussion of partnership opportunities.” Commissioners un-privatized the county attorney’s office. Last year, Ross Macbeth was in private practice and billed the county an average of $246,000 per year. …

Nineteen months after commissioners agreed to privatize 10 Highlands County functions, they’re still months away from completing the second item. The top-ten list that came out of the March 2, 2014 goal-setting workshop included transferring EMS to private ambulance companies, recycling, legal services, fleet maintenance, real estate surveying, Healthy Families and janitorial. Contracting with a company to clean county buildings is now off the table. … Handley doesn’t think privatizing the landfill will happen, though. … In a report to commissioners last week, County Administrator June Fisher said EMS revenues and expenditures have been reviewed. “We’re still waiting on a needs assessment,” Elwell said. The final report will disclose options for EMS and the volunteer fire departments to combine. “Maybe we could move toward fire-rescue, and have one crew instead of two, with cross-trained personnel.” … “I don’t think EMS will be privatized,” Richie said. … Commissioners un-privatized the county attorney. Ross Macbeth was a part-timer who ran a private practice and contracted with the county. But during one three-year period, he billed $1 million, and the commissioners saw a cost-saving opportunity. As of Oct. 1, Macbeth has moved into a county office, and hired a secretary and assistant attorney, both to be paid by the county. … County staff visited a county library in Sumter County that had been privatized. “The staff met them, and they said they would not recommend it. It’s a different situation, and the people they met with didn’t recommend it.”

]]>39016Resolutions to sell county nursing homes tabled for studyhttp://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/2016/08/resolutions-to-sell-county-nursing-homes-tabled-for-study.htm
Tue, 09 Aug 2016 15:29:28 +0000http://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/?p=38950Source: Rick Miller, Olean Times Herald, August 4, 2016 Resolutions before the Cattaraugus County Legislature seeking buyers for the county nursing homes in Olean and Machias were tabled Wednesday by the Human Services Committee for more study. … Vickman, a former employee of the Machias nursing home and a longtime supporter, added, “We aren’t able […]

Resolutions before the Cattaraugus County Legislature seeking buyers for the county nursing homes in Olean and Machias were tabled Wednesday by the Human Services Committee for more study. … Vickman, a former employee of the Machias nursing home and a longtime supporter, added, “We aren’t able to tell the public where we are (financially).” She argued for hiring a consultant to come up with a five-year plan much like the Center for Governmental Research report from 2012. Vickman also said the committee needed to meet again to decide what information and projections it needed. Committee member Barbara Hastings, D-Allegany, said the nursing homes’ independent auditor, Michael McCarthy, is scheduled to deliver an annual report later this month, suggesting the committee hold off taking any action until after hearing his report. … While it’s not easy to follow the county nursing homes’ finances, both forecast 2016 deficits of less than $1 million each. The Pines Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center in Olean has sufficient reserves to cover a $890,500 deficit, so it isn’t on the property tax levy — except for the $1 million cost of its share of intergovernmental transfer (IGT) funding. The Pines Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center in Machias budgeted for a $889,268 deficit after the IGT money is applied but does not have any fund balance. When the $889,268 Machias deficit is added to the nearly $2 million cost to obtain the federal IGT money through the state, the overall impact on the property tax levy is more than $2.8 million. … One point Rose Teachman, president of CSEA, made in her remarks to lawmakers that talks on a 70-point list of cost-saving measures suggested by the union were beginning to bear fruit when they were discontinued. There are alternatives to selling the nursing homes, she said. Legislators abruptly sent the resolutions back to committees for more study at last week’s meeting. …

]]>38950Lawmakers meet to discuss Medicaid backloghttp://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/2016/08/lawmakers-meet-to-discuss-medicaid-backlog.htm
Tue, 09 Aug 2016 15:27:13 +0000http://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/?p=38948Source: Gabriella Dunn, Wichita Eagle, August 4, 2016 Lawmakers say they have received a flood of phone calls from residents who are fed up with how long it’s taking the state to process applications for Medicaid, the insurance program for people with low incomes or who are disabled. … Mounting problems with the state’s backlog […]

Lawmakers say they have received a flood of phone calls from residents who are fed up with how long it’s taking the state to process applications for Medicaid, the insurance program for people with low incomes or who are disabled. … Mounting problems with the state’s backlog of Medicaid applications prompted Thursday’s meeting of the KanCare Oversight Committee. State officials told lawmakers Thursday that 3,587 applicants have been waiting 45 days or longer. That’s down from the 10,961 who had been waiting for that amount of time in mid-May. Hawkins said one of his family members submitted the same document three or four times and received notice from the state each time that the application clearinghouse had not received the documentation. … The backlog was caused in part by the state switching its computer system that processes Medicaid applications about a year ago. The problem worsened in January, when the state switched the agency that oversees some of the applications. Then in mid-May the state found out that backlog had been inaccurately reported by its third-party contractor, Accenture, and was four times larger than previously thought. …

An error by a contractor working for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment dramatically underrepresented — by 12,000 people — the scope of Kansas’ backlog of applications for Medicaid eligibility, officials said Friday. Susan Mosier, secretary of KDHE and the state’s Medicaid director, sent a letter to federal officials in early June disclosing a contractor relied upon a flawed method of reporting the Medicaid processing. The correction pushed the waiting list from 3,500 people on May 8 to 15,400 on May 22. … Shifting of processing oversight from the Kansas Department for Children and Families to KDHE in January escalated the bottleneck for people seeking to enroll in KanCare, the state’s Medicaid program. In February, more than 18,200 applications for Medicaid were awaiting action by the state. Of that total, 7,750 applications had been sitting in the queue for more than the federal limit of 45 days. Documents submitted by KDHE to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which required updates on progress addressing the backlog, indicated the state narrowed the application blockade to 15,800 in March and 7,700 in April. The number exceeding the 45-day limit also appeared to have been reduced to 2,000 on May 8. However, the corrected report showed that on May 22 the number of stalled applications jumped to 15,400 and the portion on hand more than 45 days amounted to 10,900. …

The Kansas Legislature’s auditors say that the rollout of the computer system the state now uses to process Medicaid applications was long delayed in part because the contractor’s software required numerous modifications. State officials say the system is improving and ultimately will make applying for Medicaid and social services a much more efficient process. But documents obtained by KHI News Service show that state workers must learn dozens of “workarounds” to process applications. And some service providers who help clients get Medicaid coverage are reporting much longer processing times since the system went live in July and the state deals with a backlog of applications. Kansas signed a contract with Accenture to build the Kansas Eligibility Enforcement System, or KEES, in 2011. The system originally was slated to be complete by the end of 2013, , but considerable delays caused lawmakers to seek an audit in March. The audit report published Thursday said the KEES timeline was unrealistic from the beginning. The system had to be adjusted because of state and federal changes to Medicaid, some due to the Affordable Care Act. But there also were problems with Accenture’s “out-of-the-box” software.

]]>38948Morris freeholders defend privatizing nursing home as Democrats oppose ithttp://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/2016/08/morris-freeholders-defend-privatizing-nursing-home-as-democrats-oppose-it.htm
Wed, 03 Aug 2016 14:23:19 +0000http://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/?p=38922Source: Ben Horowitz, NJ.com, August 2, 2016 The plan to privatize Morris County’s Morris View Healthcare Center, a 283-bed nursing home, was carefully studied before the freeholders decided to issue a request for proposals, according to a county spokesman. … The privatization plan, approved by the all-Republican board in a 5-2 vote, has emerged as […]

The plan to privatize Morris County’s Morris View Healthcare Center, a 283-bed nursing home, was carefully studied before the freeholders decided to issue a request for proposals, according to a county spokesman. … The privatization plan, approved by the all-Republican board in a 5-2 vote, has emerged as an election issue, with two Democratic freeholder candidates opposing it and saying the board needs to get more public input before moving forward. Ragonese took issue with an article published on Nj.com on Friday which reported that a similar leasing arrangement at the 1,000-bed Bergen Regional Medical Center in Paramus has proven problematic. … The privatization arrangement for Morris View was recommended in a study completed for the freeholders by Perselay Associates, a consulting company, which cited rising costs as the main reason. Perselay projected that the tax-supported subsidy for Morris View will increase from the $6.8 million incurred in 2015 to $15.5 million by 2020. Perselay cited dropping reimbursement rates from Medicaid and other sources along with rising costs to pay employees, including higher payments for their health care benefits. … Two Democratic candidates for freeholder, Rozella Clyde and Mitchell Horn, both oppose what the freeholders are doing. Clyde is urging the freeholders to delay circulating the request for proposals for six months, so that there may be more public input. She pointed out that the resolution for the request for proposals was not listed on the freeholders’ agenda last week but was added “at the last minute.” …

]]>38922Sioux Falls protests VA privatizationhttp://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/2016/07/sioux-falls-protests-va-privatization.htm
Wed, 27 Jul 2016 13:53:38 +0000http://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/?p=38859Source: Jack Taylor, KELO, July 26, 2016 If your going by the Sioux Falls VA between 11 a.m. and noon today you’ll see a protest against privatizing the government hospitals. Jane Nygaard with the American Federation of Government employees says the Koch brothers are behind “Concerned Veterans of America” which is working to privatize the […]

If your going by the Sioux Falls VA between 11 a.m. and noon today you’ll see a protest against privatizing the government hospitals. Jane Nygaard with the American Federation of Government employees says the Koch brothers are behind “Concerned Veterans of America” which is working to privatize the VA. Nygaard asks why would the nation privatize VA hospitals when that act wouldn’t provide the specialized care that veterans need. … he says polls nationwide show that 80% of veterans say they do not want the VA privatized. She says the VA Commission on Care report says the VA gives the best quality care to veterans and for lesser cost to taxpayers. …

Concern over Congress privatizing Veterans Affairs health-care services led local union members and military veterans to protest near Cheyenne’s VA Medical Center Wednesday morning. A couple dozen people stood on either side of Pershing Boulevard near the roundabout at Converse Avenue beginning at about 7 a.m. They waved small American flags and held blue signs with gold lettering that read, “Veterans for a Strong VA,” “Staff the VA” and “VA Workers for a Strong VA.” … If the system is privatized, he said, there is concern that level of care will be lost. Further, Massan said there is concern that portability, or the ability for military veterans to use VA facilities nationwide, could disappear. Talk of privatizing VA medical services has come up at the federal level through the years, including this year. The Commission on Care, a panel created by Congress to analyze the services provided by the VA, has been studying the issue for several months – including privatization. The panel issued its final report Tuesday, which recommended overhauling the VA system and expanding access to private health care, but not full privatization, according to the Federal Times and the Wall Street Journal. …

A proposal to build new veterans health facilities through public-private partnerships received a warm reception Wednesday at a Senate Veterans Affairs Committee hearing. Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., presented legislation to allow those partnerships, saying Americans’ confidence in the care provided to veterans has been shaken. … It’s a key issue for the Omaha area, which has seen a $560 million replacement for its aging VA hospital stalled by cost overruns and delays on other VA projects. Local donors have rallied to the idea of a public-private partnership that would instead construct a $136 million ambulatory care facility — a scaled-down but presumably much more achievable approach. Involving the private sector in VA construction projects can help them progress more smoothly, Fischer said. … It’s unclear exactly when the bills will come up for votes, but Ashford and Fischer talked about seeking congressional action by September and certainly before the end of the year. Several veterans organizations on Wednesday offered testimony supporting the legislation. The VA also offered its strong support for the bill while raising a technical issue on some of the language.

About 50 veterans, union employees and family members gathered at the Ann Arbor Veterans Affairs Hospital Wednesday to protest the proposed federal privatization of veteran health care. The protest was organized by the American Federation of Labor and the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE). … Amie Pounds, a national organizer for AFGE, and James Jr. agreed that the congressional commission’s assessments have been not only inaccurate but also swayed by private corporations’ profit interests. According to Pounds, of the 15 members on the commission, not one can be linked to a mainstream veterans service organization. Rather, the panel is comprised of primarily private hospital executives who stand only to benefit financially from privatizing the VA. …

The nation’s leading veteran services organizations are rallying behind the Department of Veterans Affairs and its beleaguered health care system, touting the experience of staff, the breadth of services and its holistic approach to care delivery that they argue the private sector cannot match. The VSOs are warning of politicians and groups with agendas that constantly criticize VA health care, refuse to acknowledge reforms and thus advance a camouflaged campaign to dismantle VA health care. They also say it is time to better educate their own members on actions being taken to improve to the healthcare system that millions of veterans rely upon. …

]]>38859Connecticut regulators OK Prospect Medical’s purchase of Waterbury Hospitalhttp://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/2016/07/connecticut-regulators-ok-prospect-medicals-purchase-of-waterbury-hospital.htm
Mon, 25 Jul 2016 14:10:06 +0000http://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/?p=38812Source: Erica Teichert, Modern Healthcare, July 18, 2016 Two Connecticut regulators have approved Prospect Medical Holdings’ proposed purchase of the Greater Waterbury (Conn.) Health Network, paving the way for the not-for-profit hospital to become a for-profit provider. In separate decisions on Friday, Connecticut’s attorney general and Department of Public Health both signed off on the […]

Two Connecticut regulators have approved Prospect Medical Holdings’ proposed purchase of the Greater Waterbury (Conn.) Health Network, paving the way for the not-for-profit hospital to become a for-profit provider. In separate decisions on Friday, Connecticut’s attorney general and Department of Public Health both signed off on the $43.3 million deal that will transfer virtually all of Greater Waterbury Health Network’s assets to Los Angeles-based Prospect Medical Holdings. … Under the terms of the regulatory approvals, Prospect Medical will transfer all of Greater Waterbury Health’s charitable assets to an independent foundation, and it will continue to follow Waterbury’s policies for charitable and indigent care for at least five years. Prospect has a successful track record of turning around financially challenged hospitals like Waterbury Hospital, the company said in a statement. Prospect currently owns and operates 18 hospitals, as well as 140 clinics and outpatient centers. The company is also acquiring a two-hospital system in Manchester and Rockville, Conn. …

It looks as if the third time might be the charm for the sale of Greater Waterbury Health Network and Waterbury Hospital to Prospect Medical Holdings Inc. for $100 million. The state Public Health Department’s Office of Health Care Access and the state attorney general’s office announced Friday that it was ready to approve the application filed by California-based Prospect Medical Holdings. … Friday’s draft deal with Prospect Medical Holdings comes with several conditions, including reporting changes in patient care or services to state regulators, health and community need assessments, submission of plans to consolidate or reduce services, and reports to state regulators about how $55 million promised for capital improvements will be spent. … Prospect Medical Holdings is also in the process of purchasing nonprofit Eastern Connecticut Health Network for $105 million. …

The consolidation of the hospital industry progressed Wednesday as state regulators gave tentative approval to the $105 million purchase of Manchester Memorial and Rockville General hospitals by Prospect Medical Holdings, a for-profit company based in Los Angeles. The office of Attorney General George Jepsen and the Office of Health Care Access posted their proposed final decisions for Prospect Medical’s purchase of the two hospitals, which are the major assets of the Eastern Connecticut Health Care Network. … The Office of Health Care Access, or OHCA, is responsible for reviewing the transaction for its effect on the availability and quality of health care in the region served by ECHN and the two hospitals. Manchester Memorial and Rockville General are in the contiguous eastern Hartford suburbs of Manchester and Vernon. In addition to the $105 million purchase price, Prospect Medical is required to invest no less than $75 million in capital improvements over five years, and both facilities must remain as acute-care hospitals for at least three years. Nearly all employees will be offered employment by Prospect. …

For-profit hospital chain is in merger talks with parent of Manchester Memorial, Rockville General hospitals The parent of Manchester Memorial and Rockville General hospitals said Friday it is near a merger agreement with Prospect Medical Holdings, a Los Angeles-based chain that is seeking a greater presence in New England. Prospect, which owns 13 hospitals in California, Texas and Rhode Island, is also in talks to acquire Waterbury Hospital….

Darlene Stromstad, President and CEO of Waterbury Hospital, said the Los Angeles-based Prospect Medical Holdings was chosen because of its “coordinated regional care” approach to healthcare, which will strengthen and enhance access to and the delivery of high quality, cost-effective services for the community. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed Tuesday. The deal comes several months after Texas-based Tenet Healthcare Corp. withdrew its proposal to purchase Waterbury Hospital, Saint Mary’s, and three other hospitals in Connecticut. …. With a signed letter of intent, the two organizations will now work on creating an agreement they will need to begin the “certificate of need” process, which is the first step in receiving approval from the Office for Health Care Access and the Attorney General. The transaction also will require approval from federal regulatory agencies. There are 29 acute care hospitals in Connecticut and all but one operate as nonprofits. Last year, the General Assembly passed legislation it felt would make it easier for these for-profit hospital chains to acquire non-profit hospitals. After going through that new process, Tenet withdrew its application after spending at least two years trying to acquire Connecticut hospitals. ….

Waterbury Hospital has found a new buyer. The financially troubled institution could be acquired by a California-based hospital group. Prospect Medical Holdings is the latest suitor for Waterbury Hospital. Prospect currently operates 13 hospitals and 40 clinics and outpatient centers in California, Texas, and Rhode Island. This latest partnership has come together after Tenet Healthcare pulled out of a deal to buy Waterbury and four other hospitals in the state, complaining about overly burdensome state regulations. …Waterbury Hospital has new plans to be purchased, turn for-profit
Source: Arielle Levin Becker, CT Mirror, May 5, 2015

Waterbury Hospital Waterbury Hospital has announced plans to be acquired by a private Los Angeles-based health care company, the latest move in the hospital’s quest for long-term stability. Prospect Medical Holdings, which operates 13 hospitals and 40 clinics and outpatient centers in California, Texas and Rhode Island, is Waterbury’s third potential buyer in five years….On Tuesday, Waterbury Hospital released https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.documentcloud.org/documents/2072180/waterbury-hospital-and-prospect-medical-holdings.pdf a series of questions and answers about the proposed transaction, including some blunt questions related to the legacy of the previous deals. …“Prospect has a strong reputation as an ethical and responsible healthcare company, and maintains positive, collaborative relationships with its physicians, employees, labor unions and payers, as well as with the communities served by its hospitals,” the document said.

A final effort to salvage plans by a for-profit hospital chain to buy five nonprofit hospitals in Connecticut fell apart Wednesday afternoon as both Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and Tenet Healthcare Corp. said that they could not reconcile their differences. “We believe it is best for the hospitals, their employees and the communities they serve to move forward exploring other options,” Malloy and Tenet said in a joint announcement. ….

Tenet Healthcare’s CEO Trevor Fetter skewered Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s administration and state regulators in a Jan. 16 letter, saying the state put “excessively onerous” conditions on Tenet’s plans to buy five non-profit hospital in the state. Fetter, however, did leave the door open to negotiate a deal, and laid terms for the start of an agreement. …. “It has been reported that our unfortunate experience was due to pressure placed on your administration by labor unions,” Fetter wrote. “As I mentioned to you in our initial meeting, roughly 20 percent of our total employee base of over 100,000 people is represented by unions.”

Tenet Healthcare Corp. is accepting Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s offer to discuss the possibility of Tenet reviving its plans to acquire five Connecticut hospitals. A Malloy spokesman said Tenet Senior Vice President Trip Pilgrim and Mark Ojakian, the governor’s chief of staff, are now in direct communications. In a letter dated Monday, Tenet Healthcare CEO Trevor Fetter laid out a framework for productive negotiations upon which a mutually acceptable agreement could possibly be reached.

A “termination fee” of $3.15 million from the Tenet Healthcare Corp. to Eastern Connecticut Health Network would help to balance the hospital network’s budget for at least one year. Hopefully someone at ECHN already has asked Tenet for the money, since Tenet walked away from the proposed merger. Perhaps Waterbury Hospital and St. Mary’s Hospital in Waterbury also have such a contractual “termination fee” deal with Tenet. If so, they should also demand payment….

Five hospitals in Connecticut are contemplating their next steps after Texas-based Tenet Healthcare withdrew a bid to buy the hospitals last week. The CEO of one of the biggest hospitals in the failed deal said they’re now looking to Hartford for help. Last week, Tenet Healthcare cited the state’s approach to regulatory oversight as the reason it pulled its bid to buy Waterbury Hospital, St. Mary’s, Manchester Memorial, Bristol, and Rockville General hospitals….

After warning state regulators on Wednesday that conditions placed on its acquisition of Waterbury Hospital could scuttle the deal, Tenet Healthcare pulled the plug on its plans to purchase five Connecticut hospitals. Tenet notified the state Office of Health Care Access and the attorney general late Thursday evening that it would not continue its purchase of Waterbury, St. Mary’s, Bristol, Manchester Memorial, and Rockville General hospitals and convert them from nonprofit to a for-profit model….All Connecticut hospitals that were vying for a Tenet acquisition are in need of capital injections. If Tenet doesn’t come back to the negotiating table, the hospitals will need to find other partners, or ask the state legislature for significant funding increases. But the hospital’s merger options have now been significantly narrowed, because there are few other Connecticut hospitals with the capital to take on financially struggling care providers. At the same time, the state may have alienated the entire for-profit hospital industry with the strict conditions it imposed on Tenet, including requiring the appointment of an independent monitor, the freezing of pricing and staff levels for five or more years, the filing of strategic spending and hiring plans, and various other oversight and disclosures….

….The deal for for-profit Tenet to purchase not-for-profit Waterbury Hospital was part of a broader plan by Tenet to buy five hospitals in Connecticut that seemed to be rounding the final turn of a process stretching through at least two legislative sessions of intense lobbying. Despite the hospital’s precarious financial position, the state speaker of the house said he would not support a taxpayer-funded bailout of Waterbury Hospital if it came to that point in the future….

….But the deal encountered roadblocks in Connecticut, which has only one investor-owned medical center, 78-bed Sharon (Conn.) Hospital, part of RegionalCare Hospital Partners. The state also has a particularly broad corporate practice of medicine law, and the trend toward physician employment has been controversial in the state. To circumvent those restrictions, Tenet in March formed a partnership with Yale that would have created joint clinical networks, with Yale trading its brand and expertise in exchange for a minority stake in the newly acquired hospitals. As a not-for-profit entity, Yale’s participation also would have created another avenue for the hospitals to employ physicians.
Earlier this month, Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen approved Tenet’s deal for Waterbury (Conn.) Hospital with 21 conditions that were largely financial. The state’s Office of Health Care Access also seemed to offer its support to the takeover but imposed 47 more-arduous conditions…..

Mayors in Manchester and Waterbury, two towns that are home to hospitals involved in the now-defunct sale to Tenet Healthcare Corp., in recent days had aired their displeasure with the extensive list of restrictions the state placed on the deal — restrictions they feared would cause the sale to crumble.
And on Thursday, the Texas-based, for-profit Tenet announced it would abandon its plans to acquire five hospitals in Connecticut. The deal — more than two years in the making— would have seen Tenet acquire Waterbury Hospital, St. Mary’s Hospital in Waterbury, Bristol Hospital, and Eastern Connecticut Health Network, which owns Rockville General Hospital in Vernon and Manchester Memorial Hospital….

A senior official at the Dallas-based corporation trying to buy community hospitals in Bristol, Vernon, Manchester and Waterbury says privatizing them is the best way to keep them viable, but employee representatives have major concerns about the potential buyouts….

Late Wednesday night, lawmakers managed to accomplish something many doubted would be possible: Crafting a compromise that could clear the way for four Connecticut hospitals to be acquired by a for-profit company, in a way that would mollify both unions critical of the transactions and hospitals wary of additional state oversight. The measure cleared the House and Senate by wide margins. Union leaders supported the deal. Hospital lobbyists looked pleased. But for some legislators key to the deal, any sense of celebration after the deal was short-lived. Their concern: The response to the bill by Tenet Healthcare and the Yale New Haven Health System, which are partnering to acquire Waterbury, Bristol, Manchester Memorial and Rockville General hospitals. ….

Several Connecticut hospitals are looking to form partnerships with for-profit companies — a change that some say is necessary for hospitals to survive but that others charge would emphasize money over health care and community needs. Thursday, the legislature’s labor and public employees committee heard arguments for and against a bill that would put restrictions on hospitals seeking to convert from nonprofit to for-profit. The bill would require, among other things, that hospitals maintain staffing levels for at least three years after receiving the attorney general’s approval for converting to for-profit status, and to maintain the same employee salaries and benefits that were in place before the conversion. Tenet Healthcare Corp., a Dallas-based for-profit company that has partnered with Yale New Haven Health System, is negotiating to acquire Waterbury Hospital. Bristol Hospital and Eastern Connecticut Health Network are also in merger talks with Tenet. …

Gov. Dannel Malloy says “progress is being made” on legislation related to the long-awaited sale of Bristol Hospital to Tenet Healthcare, although there is much work to be done. The governor responded to questions about the hospital negotiations during a telephone conference call with editors of state newspapers Wednesday. The focus of the call was on the billion-dollar United Technologies expansion agreement announced the previous day. Malloy recommitted to evaluating privatization of nonprofit hospitals based on how such a move would impact patient care, hospital employees and contributors to the hospitals involved, adding that evaluation and legislation on a case-by-case basis would likely be necessary. He said he would be open to privatization if necessary, but his preference was for the hospitals “to remain in the same hands as they are now.” Bristol Hospital — along with the hospitals of Eastern Connecticut Health Network in Manchester — have purchase agreements pending with Tenet, which purchased Vanguard Healthcare, the originators of the acquisition….

The General Assembly should not allow the state’s nonprofit hospitals to be converted to for-profit entities without taking steps to ensure safe nurse-to-patient ratios, preserve the jobs of support workers, and protect employee pensions, union officials say….Similarly, the leader of the union that represents 400 nurses at Waterbury Hospital said lawmakers should require “for-profit converters” to make certain guarantees. Waterbury Hospital, along with Bristol Hospital and Eastern Connecticut Health Network’s Manchester Memorial and Rockville General hospitals, has been targeted for takeover by the Texas hospital chain Tenet Healthcare. Barbara Simonetta, president of Connecticut Health Associates, said such guarantees would include agreements to maintain access to current health services and affordable care. She said the for-profits also should agree to maintain “quality staffing and hospital employees’ standard of living” and to comply with “community benefits” provisions, including patient and worker protections. Simonetta also complained that Waterbury Hospital was making “cuts to woo investors to its fire sale” and accused Tenet of “stealing our retirement security to line investors’ pockets.”…

Tempers flared at the end of the this year’s legislative session over a bill that would have made it easier for a private, for-profit hospital company to purchase physician practices from a nonprofit hospital that it planned to take over….Waterbury Hospital was the first to start courting for-profit suitors like Vanguard Health Systems, a Tennessee-based for-profit hospital operator that was recently acquired by another Texas-based for-profit company called Tenet HealthCare Corporation. Tenet has been in negotiations with Waterbury Hospital and has been courted by Bristol Hospital, and Eastern Connecticut Health Network. But the question lawmakers will have to answer is: Would a for-profit risk quality care in order to achieve savings for shareholders?…

…Barnes and other administration officials say the out-of-state companies and corporate buyout firms that would acquire or merge with the hospitals and convert them into for-profit providers should not be allowed to make the switch without a major public “discussion.”… The officials spoke with the Journal Inquirer in recent days as Eastern Connecticut Health Network, the nonprofit owner of Manchester Memorial and Rockville General hospitals, is poised to “partner” with one of two larger for-profit hospital systems based in Tennessee and Texas….

…Attorney General Jepsen, who along with the commissioner of the state health department has power of approval over sale of nonprofit hospitals, agreed with Barnes that conversions are “kind of the wave of the future,” adding, “We’re not going to be able to turn back the clock.” Asked if he is concerned that a community’s needs no longer would be the priority of a former nonprofit, Jepsen demurred, asserting that the attorney general’s role in a conversion is limited…. Jepsen added that Sharon Hospital “is the only completed conversion,” referring to the Litchfield County facility acquired in 2002 by the Tennessee for-profit system, Essent Healthcare….

]]>38812VA privatization debate to hinge on coming reporthttp://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/2016/06/va-privatization-debate-to-hinge-on-coming-report.htm
Thu, 30 Jun 2016 14:43:40 +0000http://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/?p=38587Source: Travis J. Tritten, Stars & Stripes, June 29, 2016 The coming week could be a watershed moment in the volatile debate over privatizing more health care at the Department of Veterans Affairs. A panel created by Congress to overhaul the VA is expected to release final recommendations July 6 that are two years in […]

The coming week could be a watershed moment in the volatile debate over privatizing more health care at the Department of Veterans Affairs. A panel created by Congress to overhaul the VA is expected to release final recommendations July 6 that are two years in the making and will likely include the option of private care for the millions of veterans who now use the federal system of hospitals and clinics. It will come amid controversial proposals to give all veterans a card to access private doctors and to turn the VA into a not-for-profit corporation. Those efforts to push the department toward privatized care caused near universal blowback from national veterans groups. Unionized VA employees were staging opposition rallies across the country due to fears over privatization in the lead-up to the commission’s VA report. … [American Federation of Government Employees] is concerned that the Commission on Care is bent on significantly expanding the use of private care to treat veterans – a move that Cox said could result in the closure of 12 to 15 VA health care facilities annually due to a lack of need. … Eight veterans groups, including the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars, strongly criticized the plan and warned they would reject any final recommendations aimed at privatizing the VA health care system, which is the largest integrated health care network in the country. …

The federal Commission on Care, set up to study the future of Department of Veterans Affairs health care, is to present its final report this week. Seven of its 15 member have released recommendations that some veterans groups say would privatize the system. Would privatization of V.A. health care improve the system or undermine it?

Debaters:

PHILLIP LONGMAN: Phillip Longman is the author of “Best Care Anywhere: Why VA Care Would Work Better for Everyone.” He serves on the Commission on Care, which has been tasked by Congress and President Obama with crafting a strategic plan for the future of veterans health care.

AVIK ROY: Avik Roy is the opinion editor at Forbes. He co-chaired the Fixing Veterans Health Care Taskforce, along with former Representative Jim Marshall (D.-Ga.), former Senator Bill Frist (R.-Tenn.) and Michael Kussman, a former Veterans Heath Administration director.

]]>38587Union denied restraining order against hiring subcontractors at troubled psychiatric hospitalhttp://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/2016/06/union-denied-restraining-order-against-hiring-subcontractors-at-troubled-psychiatric-hospital.htm
Fri, 24 Jun 2016 15:36:11 +0000http://www.afscmeinfocenter.org/privatizationupdate/?p=38508Source: KTVU, June 23, 2016 Attorneys representing psychiatrists and the administration that operates Alameda County’s beleaguered John George Psychiatric Emergency Room fought over a restraining order on hiring Wednesday. … Staff members have long complained they’re often overwhelmed and can’t meet patient demand putting their safety and that of their patients at risk. In Alameda […]

Attorneys representing psychiatrists and the administration that operates Alameda County’s beleaguered John George Psychiatric Emergency Room fought over a restraining order on hiring Wednesday. … Staff members have long complained they’re often overwhelmed and can’t meet patient demand putting their safety and that of their patients at risk. In Alameda County Superior Court in Hayward Wednesday an attorney representing John George told Judge Scott Patton he agreed overcrowding was an issue and that justified hiring from an outside contractor. … The solution according to Alameda Health Service, or AHS, is to contract out to a private company to provide additional psychiatrists. … Fellow John George psychiatrist Dr. David Schatz told KTVU the move to hire a private company to replace the current doctors has been brewing for some time. … At the end of the hearing the judge ruled in favor of Alameda Health Service. Judge Scott Patton said of AHS, “They’re not trying to replace services. They’re trying to provide services that are not currently being performed because of staffing shortages.” The doctors say they still have a chance to make their case at a future hearing through arbitration. …